A Cartoonist in Equestria
by Autismo555
Summary: After his older sister's death, an aspiring 15-year-old cartoonist runs away from home, wishing for a better chance at life. A cyclone sends him to the most unlikeliest of all places: Equestria!
1. Chapter 1: I Wish Upon a Star

_A roar of laughing jeers and mocking giggling echoed through the school hallway. Ten-year-old Harold DeMatt laid on the floor with his face in the tiles, hiding his faint sobs of despair. His sky blue backpack was unzipped and its contents spilt all over the floor. Three students towering over Harold looked down on him, each with a wicked sneer on his face. A sneer that significantly meant they were enjoying the pleasure of seeing Harold squirm and cry._

_The three students beating the poor lad were the local bullies. The lead bully of the pack was the "high and mighty" Drake Singer, a messy brown-haired ruffian with a scar running through his right eyelid. Following by his side were two lackeys, Al Keith and Roger Hayes. Now, Al Keith was someone that people would call a slow-thinking golem, a balding hulk-like figure with the I.Q of 60 and muscles ripped all over his body as if he was high on steroids. His anger matched his persona as well. Roger Hayes was a skinny guy with long curly hair, making him look like a walking mop. His hair covered his right eye, his left eye bloodshot and baggy with fatigue. To that end, he earned the nickname, "Red-Eyed Mophead," mostly "Mophead," due to his appearance. What he lacked in figure he made up for in lightweight wrestling._

_But then, there was their leader, Drake Singer. He was a little shorter that Roger was, only about an inch. He had messy brown hair and a scar on his right eyelid which he got during a fight in the streets. He was known for being calm, cool and collective, though only when he didn't participate in a fight. Whenever Drake was landed a hard blow or the first to draw blood, his calm demeanor would be swapped with someone dangerous, a fierce force to be reckoned with. All three of the bullies were in the 6th grade remedial class, all stricken with poverty and homelessness. Their only needs of therapy was the use of violence and taunting, Harold unfortunately being the maitre'd for their mashing._

_On this particular day, Drake showed an example of his mashing._

_"__That's a real bad dent you've put in your locker, Harold. Here, why don't we try fixing that?"_

_It was the third Tuesday of the month, or what the bullies called, Locker Day. It was a day when the bullies marched down through the hallways, stuffing any unfortunate soul who happened to be near their locker when they passed through. Their victim was mostly poor Harold, whose slow and steady pace made him an easy target. Drake opened Harold's locker door and had Roger and Al shove him in the cramped storage, headfirst. Drake peered down into the locker and watched as Harold sobbed and struggled to reposition himself in a more comfortable position._

_"__You can fix the indent better now, can't you Harold?" Al and Roger laughed at the cruel antics their leader inflicted on Harold as Drake continued to mock him, festering his torment further. "As a matter of fact, Harold, why don't you stay in here to 'chill' for the rest of the day? I'm sure somebody won't mind you being stuck in here. In fact, I won't mind anyone who would have the guts to let you out of here." Drake threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh, the crowd joining in on the mocking laughter._

_"__I mind."_

_The strict voice caused the laughter to cease almost immediately._

_Everyone in the halls turned and saw a fifteen-year-old girl gaze at the three bullies with her piercing glower. She had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes like sapphires and a face carved from angels that looked just as beautiful even when she was in an angry mood. The girl walked to the three bullies vigorously with the crowd of gathering students nervously backing away from her path. Everyone knew that Lana had a red belt in martial arts, the third highest ranking in that class and they backed away for fear of her wrath if they tried to mess with her or her little brother. The bullies, however, fearlessly kept their ground as Drake combed his messy hair with his fingers._

_"__Well hello, Lana. Fancy seeing you here around these parts." Drake said while he slammed the door, trapping Harold inside. Metallic pounds and desperate screams were heard from the inside of the locker, making Lana's anger boil only by slightly. "Don't you have a geography class you have to be at right now?"_

_"__I have a free period to study, Drake, but you coming on to me is not the reason I'm here," Lana said in a stern voice whilst pointing to the small metal storage. "You're going to let my brother of his locker right now and walk away. If you do that, then there won't be any need for another fight."_

_Drake shook his head. "No can do, beautiful. You know me and the boys, it's Locker Day. We just take whoever's in the hallways alone and stuff 'em in their lockers. It's a sort of tradition," he said nonchalantly, combing his hair with his hand. "You know what they say, you can't really break tradition."_

_"__I don't care if it's some crappy international holiday. Just let my brother go and no one has to get hurt."_

_Drake feigned fear with a mocking "ooh" sound. "Ooh, I'm so scared. Whatcha gonna do, Princess? Run home to your parents and tell them about our bad behavior and get us expelled? Try as you may, sweetheart, no one's gonna listen to any kid of some greedy arrogant douchebag and some animal killing witch who just made ten species of endangered animals extinct."_

_Princess. Sweetheart. Two of the many little words that would bring the Bruce Lee out of Lana. And it was at this moment that the fighter side of Lana would make an example of the three rich kids. Now, Harold could barely see what was happening through the sloping tops outside of the claustrophobic locker, but he heard enough to know what went on. First he heard his sister's footsteps run down towards the lead bully and then heard a _KRAAK!_ It was then followed by a high-pitched male screaming. Harold started snickering, for he knew what happened outside._

_Lana had kicked Drake in the nuts._

_Harold heard the tumblers of the locker unlock and saw his locker door open to reveal his older sister reaching out for his hand. It was a good thing that he entrusted her with his locker combinations for emergencies such as this. Harold firmly gripped her hand and felt himself gently pulled out of his steel cage. He looked over to see the "high and mighty" Drake Singer rolling on the ground in pain, screaming like a little girl while his hands covered his broken groin. Everyone in the halls stood near the walls like a statue, their eyes widened and their mouths open to create a gawking face._

_Drake's two flunkies gave both Lana and Harold a mean, murderous look. Harold whimpered under the stares of his tormentors and hid behind Lana, the latter laying a reassuring hand on his head. He could only watch Lana from the sidelines as she stood her ground against the forces of Al and Roger._

_"__What the hell did you do to him, DeMatt!?" asked the obviously brain-dead Al._

_"__Oh, you're paying for breaking our boy's balls right now, you damn wench!" Roger growled._

_Lana sighed disapprovingly. She turned and shot the two bullies a scowl, a stare that was powerful enough to make ten tough men cower with fear. Al and Roger were immediately drawn back from the stare, a sure warning that the two bullies that Lana would do worse to them than just a simple nut shot to Drake's family jewels. Al and Roger stood still for a moment, shuddering and whimpering masculinely. Then they quickly picked up Drake by the legs and started running down the hall, dragging their leader's head on the ground behind them._

_"__If we ever see the either one of you anywhere in these halls again, you're dead meat!" the two bullies shouted back as they turned around the corner of a nearby hall, out of sight. The spectators hanging around the walls all gave both Harold and Lana a cold stare before they quickly vacated the hallway, paying no more mind to the spawn of the world's most hated people. When the last student turned around and left the halls, Lana turned around and wiped the dust off of Harold's uniform and fixing his messed up hair._

_"__Are you alright, Harold?" Lana asked._

_"__I am now," Harold said, smiling. "Thanks, big sis."_

_"You're welcome, little brother. I'm just glad I got to you before they did any more damage to you." Lana quickly gathered up Harold's school supplies from the floor and stuffed them back into his backpack. She kissed him on the forehead and patted him on the shoulder. "You'd better hurry up to your next class now, Harold. Your teacher is going to flip out if you're only a minute late again."_

_Harold smiled back, but his face quickly melted into melancholy as he felt something bother him. In all the years he spent in school, the students and the teachers had bullied him and beaten him senseless, but he never got to ask why they did what they did to him. Harold turned his gaze away to the tiled floors and rubbed his arms nervously as mustered up the courage to ask the question he so desired to ask his sister._

_"Lana? Why do people hate us?"_

_Lana deeply breathed through her nose. She knew Harold would ask the question she feared, but it had to come out sooner or later. She knelt down on one knee and placed both hands on his shoulders, looking squarely in his eyes. "Well, Harold, it's because of our parents, remember? Our father took control of everyone's lives by taking away their wealth, their homes and their hopes while our mother made most of the planet's endangered animals extinct so she would make clothing and perfumes from them. It's because of this that the people came to resent the name of the DeMatt. They only see us as evil and wicked as they would see our parents and we can't change that now."_

_Harold lowered his head in shame, but he was lifted back up by the chin with Lana's hand. "Oh, but what do they all know? We're nothing like mother and father, right?" Lana asked. "After all, after with what they both put us through, we both agree that we'll never be as wicked as they are now. Right?"_

_"Right," Harold nodded, but still feeling distraught with shame and gloominess. "But Lana, how can we convince everyone that we're nothing like mom and dad? Everyone hates us and they won't even listen to a word I say. Nobody else besides Reginald wants to see-"_

_Lana raised her index finger to Harold's lip, gently shushing the boy and smiled. "Don't worry, Harold. There are plenty of people in this world who would want to listen to you. Just because we were born under a bad family doesn't mean we are bad people. If you need anything, just absolutely anything at all, then I am always right here with you..."_

_"__Right here with you..."_

_"__Right here with..."_

_"__Right here..."_

_"__Right..."_

* * *

15-year-old Harold woke up with a small gasp. He sat up from the grassy field that he laid upon, his backpack used as his head pillow. The bright sun hung overhead the highway. A gentle breeze swayed through the fields with the grass and Harold's greasy hair flowing with the tame winds. The sound of passing cars echoed through the open road, making it the perfect day to travel down the road. Sure, it seemed like a perfect day for Harold to ride his bicycle down to wherever the road took him. Though, to be honest, none of the days that he lived through had ever defined it as "a perfect day." There may have been a silver lining, yes, but the rest of his days were nothing but gray and cloudy.

Today was day four since Harold's lone pilgrimage out onto the open road. Day four of escaping the pain, captivity and the hate that was wrongly forced upon him. Day four of finally being free of the mundane tortures of school, homework and beatings. Day four of venturing to fulfill his promise to Lana. More importantly, it was day four of finding a new way to help bless the fifteen years of his life with a second chance.

In all that time, Harold never washed himself since there was no pond nor rain to shower the dirt off. He wore the same clothing everyday: a light gray T-shirt with the upper half and the sleeves red, a pair of polyester pants with a soft interior, dirty socks and a pair of white sneakers with grey front tips. The backside of each article of clothing were stained with dirt, probably from Harold lying on the ground every night.

Around his neck was his most prized possession: a round, circular, gold locket with an engraving of a rose with a star on top etched on the front. It was clean as a whistle, in mint condition and a memorabilia to Lana.

His weighing backpack was light blue and loaded with the necessary survival items for going out alone in the world, including bug spray and a flashlight. On the night before he started his journey, Harold emptied his school supplies out and stuffed in one loaf of bread, a block of cheese, three glass jars of peaches, six bottles of water, a can of dried apricots, a sketchbook and a Ziploc bag full of different assortments of pencils and erasers. He had $142.67 worth of stolen money from his parent's safes stashed in the front pocket, plus DVDs of classic movies that brought him fond memories of him and Lana together. The latter and the survival items were all presented to him, thanks in part to his head butler, Reginald.

The bicycle that Harold rode down the highway was white with a black leather seat and gears that shifted up to nine. The tires were a little flat thanks to Harold riding it nonstop all day for the past three days. The only times that Harold allowed himself off the bike was for eating meals, resting, bathroom breaks and hiding from the law. After all, he _did_ run away from home. Home. Harold hated the very thought of home. In fact, he hated those thoughts so much, that it was the only thing on his mind while he aimlessly rode his bike down the main highway out of New York.

It was on this day, one month ago that Lana had passed away when a yellow-and-black Camaro, the black stripes running along the front of the hood, struck her when she tried to save Harold from getting hit himself. She passed away moments later, but not before handing down her locket, originally a Christmas present from Harold back to him. Lana had smiled gracefully, even when she drew her final breath. Drake Singer was there and so were Al and Roger, along with a crowd of witnesses who saw the unfolding scene themselves.

During the following month, Harold slumped into a deep depression. His sister, one of the only few people he loved and loved him back, was gone forever. There was no way of seeing her again, except only in his dreams and memories. The New York City Police Department found the car, but couldn't find out who drove it. Harold lost his faith in humanity that day. He decided if these people were beyond saving, despite how much Lana tried and helped them, there was exactly no point in helping them anymore. To that end, Harold took his bike, a load of cash like chicken feed to his estranged parents, his possessions and rode off into the night.

Ever since then, Harold was fuming murmurs and mutterings about the people who tormented him, humiliated him... hurt him even. Most of these murmurings were pointed towards his parents and the private school he was forced to attend. Today, in the late afternoon, Harold's complaining reached day four as he expunged his hatred from his system, all of which dripped with the sweat running down from his head. He wasn't fond of this much exercise he had in four days, but what better way was there to let his repressed anger and hatred out than pedaling his bike and moaning his loathing out?

"Mom, dad, I hope the both of you are proud of yourselves," Harold murmured as he pushed his gears to five. "You two really made me sick to my stomach. First you made people suffer by taking away their money and homes, then you took pleasure in watching them squirm. And then you had the gall of saying my dreams and my promise to Lana would amount to nothing but a pile of ash and dust." The day seemed to have quickly reverted into the late afternoon as he continued to pollute the air with thoughts of disgust at his home in New York City.

"Thinking back, I'm glad I ran away from you two posers. No one would miss me back at home. In fact, nobody would even notice that I was gone for this long." Harold sighed. "Nobody would want to find me. I'm just the son of some corporate sleazeball with a B to C- grade average. Even if you two did went out looking for me, I would've been already long gone before you or your three bloodhounds would. You ritzy, self-centered, putzes."

Harold humphed at the thought of his school. "The school wouldn't miss me either. Drake and the other two can find someone to beat up in their prison cells for all I care. The teachers can just give my desk up to the firewood pile. Who cares? I'm never gonna go to a school like that ever again. Scratch that, I don't _ever_ want to go to another school again."

Then, one more thing ran through Harold's thoughts as he rode along the road, the sun setting on the horizon. "Reginald, you hated mom and dad just as much as I did. You wanted me to fulfill Lana's promise and you helped to see me off from that place. You even packed some of the necessary stuff I needed to survive in the wilderness... so why didn't you come with me? Why?"

A sharp pain in Harold's belly interrupted his thoughts. It felt like a stomachache, but it was more of a wasting stomach feeling. The pain meant only one thing: "Guess it's time to eat."

Harold pulled over to the field next to the road, stepped off the bike and put the kickstand down. He sat himself against a nearby rock and took out his "dinner." He unzipped his backpack to reveal what food he had left: half a loaf bread, a small block of cheese, a jar and half of peaches, two and a half-full bottles of water and several dried apricots. Harold made a cheese sandwich with peaches on the side and the half-full bottle of water to drink. He took his iPod out of pocket with about 32% of battery life left. He put the song to "Aerith's Theme," took a bite out of his sandwich and sat there quietly, observing the tranquil night sky above him, with the moonlight shining with serenity.

_"__The night sky sure is beautiful tonight,"_ Harold thought to himself. _"Lana, I wish you were here to see the sky with me. We always loved watching the night sky together."_ Harold pictured a strong image of him and Lana sitting on the roof of their mansion home in the sea of stellar lights. They sat close with their heads leaning on each other as a comet sailed through the majestic atmosphere.

Harold bit down on his sandwich hard as tears of sadness started to leak out of his eyes.

_"__I remember all of the times you used to stand up for me whenever Drake Singer and his two flunkies gave me a rough time."_ Harold wearily chuckled at the image of Locker Day at school when Lana nailed Drake Singer in the family jewels. Everyone around the scene were taken aback, with their mouths gaping open in shock.

_"__Lana, before you died, you told me to not get angry in your name. I even promised you I would reach out for my dream and make that one thing in my life I never made. But... you had to give your life up... because of me..."_ One final image of Harold with Lana ran through his head. Harold was in the middle of a crosswalk, holding his dying sister across his lap while she held up her locket to him. Red streaks of blood flowed down her face, mixing with the downpour as they washed into the drains.

_"__It's not... it's not... fair."_ Harold could briefly see an image of Lana's smiling face in the heavens before it disappeared. With his sadness breaking out of the bottle, Harold threw his head and screamed.

"IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" Harold bellowed towards the night. "GOD! HOW COULD YOU TAKE MY SISTER AWAY LIKE THAT!? WHY DID I HAVE TO SUFFER A MONTH OF PAIN AND SADNESS BECAUSE YOU TOOK HER BEFORE SHE COULD DO SOMETHING RIGHT FOR THIS SICK COUNTRY!? IS THIS A PART OF YOUR SICK PLAN!? IS YOUR PLAN FOR ME TO SUFFER FOR LIFE UNTIL I DIE!? WHY WAS I THE ONE WHO HAD TO SUFFER FOR MY FAMILY! WHY!? WHY!?"

Harold clutched his locket at his chest before he yelled up to another spirit in the heavens. "LANA! YOU TOLD ME THERE WAS ONE THING I NEVER MADE IN MY LIFE, BUT THEN YOU DIED BEFORE YOU COULD EVEN TELL ME! WELL, WHAT WAS IT, LANA!? WHAT WAS IT THING I'VE NEVER MADE BEFORE!?" He gripped and he gripped until his hand was bruised from holding his sister's locket. He held his bruised hand as he bawled out to the sky in tragic pain, his throat becoming hoarse with every scream aimed to at the night sky.

"LANA! YOU ONCE TOLD ME IF I EVER FELT ALONE, I SHOULD LOOK UP TO THE SKY AND BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE HERE BESIDE ME! WELL, LOOK AT ME LANA! I'M LOOKING UP AT THE SKY RIGHT NOW! IT'S YOUR TURN, SO SHOW ME! SHOW ME THAT YOU CAN HEAR ME RIGHT NOW, LANA! SHOW ME A SIGN!" Harold started trembling before he broke down in tears and sobbed with his face buried in his hands. His fingers dug into his forehead as he choked on his breaths, his salty tears flowing down to the corners of his mouth and onto his tongue.

Then, as if the pleas of a heartbroken teenager's were being answered, something strange started to happened. The once nightly gentle spring breeze quickly turned into gusts of wing. Black clouds rapidly moved in, shrouding the serene moonlight and the glowing stars into darkness.

Harold uncovered his face from his bruised palms and took notice of the wind and the sudden darkness. The wind seemed to be moving towards the direction opposite of the clouds' movement. Harold worriedly looked behind him to see what was attracting those close, a regrettable decision he made in his life. What he saw next shrank the runaway's pupils to pinprick size. In exactly one mile away from where Harold settled down, a giant dusty spiral formed, attracting dust, dirt and dark clouds. The pavement was shredded like paper before they became the unwilling part of the tornado's wrath.

It was moving towards Harold.

It was moving fast.

"Aw, crap!" Without a moment of hesitation, Harold quickly gathered up his food, kicked the kickstand up off his bike and rode off away from the tornado as quick as a flash. Fire burned in his legs as Harold poured almost all of his energy into pedaling his bike, but his efforts were all in vain. Clouds of dust and grass from the highway flew into Harold's eyes, scratching his vision and slowing him down greatly. Pavement from the highway started to crack and rise towards the spiral. The tornado's suction power was so potent, it could suck up any unfortunate object or person within one-hundred yards away, including Harold and his bike. Harold felt himself lifted up by an invisible force, his bike flipped upside-down and its owner hanging onto its handlebars and was launched backwards into the dark spiral of doom, welcoming its victims into its vortex.

"LANA! LAAAAANNNNNAAAAA!"

His screams for help was drowned by both the volume of the storm as he was forcefully sucked into the storm. His fingers, so tightly latched onto the handlebars had snapped off, leaving Harold screaming like the kid he was, flying around the cyclone and whipped around the center. The sudden spinning action of the winds beat Harold worse than the beatings he undeservingly received at school. His backpack was ripped open by the extreme gale force and all of its contents were scattered among the swirling dust. His bike was crunched was the sudden breakneck whiplash while it moved closer into the eye of the storm. Harold held on to every little fiber of life he had left for him, but all too soon, his consciousness began to fade. He couldn't speak, see anything or even think straight. All of his senses were numbed and slowly meeting their way to death's door.

_"__No. I can't die... not like this... not now..."_ Harold thought to himself. _"If I die now, I can never fulfill my promise to my sister."_ Harold's vision faded into pure darkness, the dust and the flying rubble helping to shroud what little light was left to glow. His consciousness were ripped asunder, falling like broken glass and shattering into oblivion. Harold's eye leaked a single tear; he deemed himself as a pathetic failure. With his death, he would never find peace for he couldn't fulfill his promise to Lana. With his last breath, Harold looked up to the center of the storm, seeing his world fade away with the sucking winds.

Harold's vision began to fade away into black, along with his consciousness. All the swirling dust and the rubble around became all but misty and dark. A tear started to form in his eye. He felt himself a failure, unable to finally fulfill his promise to Lana while he clung to his last moments in the mortal world. With his last breath, Harold looked up to center of the tornado, watching the wrathful cyclone as it sent him to Heaven to his sister's warm embrace.

_"__Lana, if you're out there... is it possible that you could... you could give your brother another chance? Please?"_

The tear dropped.

Then everything went black.

Harold floated in the abyss of eternal darkness, the one-way barrier between the mortal world and the spiritual world. Time had no meaning; everything seemed to flow on for what felt like an eternity. Reality had no absolute meaning in the dark void. It was only an empty blackness where Harold's sorrowful soul was drifting aimlessly, waiting until he would find himself before the gates of Heaven or the gates of Hell. For his sins of wanting wrath and living under his sister's shadow, Harold would probably kept in the dismal plane of Limbo, never moving on until he did what he promised to do on the mortal world.

Suddenly, from beyond the nonexistent darkness, a feminine voice called out to him. The voice was soft, gentle and calm. More importantly, the voice sounded familiar... a _very_ familiar voice.

"Harold... Harold..."

Harold slowly opened his eyes, seeing the never-ending darkness stretching on to infinity. Then a beacon of light shone beyond the void, rays of bright, merciful illumination shining the darkness away. Harold looked at the center of the light and saw a silhouette of a person, her figure thin and slender without too much fat on her body, all wrapped in a dress of white woven silk. Her blonde hair reached down to the middle of her back, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling in her shaded figure. As the figure got closer, Harold could clearly see her face, a beautiful smiling visage carved in by the angels. Harold gasped lightly, for he knew that smile anywhere; the same calming smile that helped to calm even the most disturbed creature.

_"__Lana... is that you? Is this all real? Am I... really dead?"_ Harold felt a fear well up inside of his chest, a familiar fester growing with his worries and insecurities. A hot tear leaked from his eye, rolling down to his cheek. The ethereal girl reached over to Harold and caught the tear with her finger and traced up his cheek, the touch like a kiss of sunlight warming his cold, frigid skin. When the ear and its trail of moisture was wiped from Harold's face, the girl looked at him and smiled.

"Yes, Harold, it's me," Lana said gently, her voice as calming as her grin. "It's alright, little brother, I'm here." Lana reached over and slowly pulled Harold to her by his back, wrapping him in the most gentle and the most warm embrace he ever received. Harold felt himself become powerless in Lana's loving hug and every defense to hold his tears back lowered themselves. Then, he began to cry, burying his face his sister's chest. Lana stroked his hair and cooed in his ear, pulling him in tighter in her embrace.

_"__Lana... I'm sorry. I'm afraid that I couldn't fulfill your promise."_

Lana pulled Harold from her hug and looked him in the eyes, wiping his tears forming in the corners of his eyes. She shook her and smiled, partially calming Harold of his sadness. "No, Harold. It's not your time to die yet, little brother," Lana assured her scared brother. "What you are feeling is a deep sleep. You will wake up from this sleep, but when you do, you must find out what it was you haven't made in your life."

Harold inhaled shakily from his sobs. He felt a new worry come across him, as he heard his beloved sister's tone become serious and direct. _"But... but Lana, I don't even know what I haven't made before. Even if I did know what I've made, why is it so important? What was it that I've never made before?"_

"You will find out in the near future, little brother. Everything that you've asked me will be revealed in due time" Lana gently pulled Harold into her arms for another embrace, whispering in his ear. "I have to go now, Harold. You're about to wake up, and I cannot keep you stuck in Limbo forever."

Lana pulled herself from Harold's grip and slowly retracted into the light. Harold reached his arm out, but was too late; Lana was beyond his reaching distance, not wanting her to go back into the light. _"Lana, wait! You still haven't told me what it was! What was it that I've never made!? Please, tell me! Tell me!"_

"I'm afraid I can't, Harold. That is something that you are going to have to find out for yourself." A saddened smile spread across her lips once more, a crystalline tear forming in her eyes as she disappeared into the light. Then the light expanded outwards towards Harold, eliminating every darkness that wrapped him inside of its cooling hold as Harold shielded his arm against the intense illumination. "Goodbye, little brother."

_"__Lana. Lana, wait!"_

Then everything went white.

Then the white reverted into black.

First there was silence, a gentle and tranquil sound of nothingness that helped put anybody to a peaceful slumber.

Within minutes of the silence, the gentle sounds of a gentle spring breeze were heard, slowly starting off as a dull roar, then building into the breezes rustling through the treetops. A beautiful duet of singing songbirds sung their precious tunes before it was replaced by the rhythmic flapping of wings. The sunlight's golden rays gave warmth and comfort for the body sprawled out in the grass, relaxing the soreness in his muscles. The bed on which he laid upon helped alleviate the pain on the back of his body, giving off a pleasant fragrance that drifted off with the winds.

That's when it hit him.

Flowers. Harold was lying down in a bed of flowers, the texture of the petals helping to lower the pain in his arm muscles.

Harold laid in the flower bed, motionless and too tired to open his eyes. He let the sunshine help him slowly regain his strength, just enough strength so he would open his eyes. In minutes that seemed to last for hours, Harold felt his pain drain from his system, until at last he fluttered his eyes open to a squint. The sea of bright blue loomed over Harold's exhausted body, the sunlight slowly shining in his eyes. Harold squinted his eyes, trying to prevent the strain of the sun's glare from doing any damage to his eyesight, but managed to adjust to the brightness. As he looked up to the endless sky, his mind began to rework its primary functions, a single question running through the depths of his brain.

_"__Where am I?"_

* * *

"It was yet another beautiful night, Luna. Tell me, were you and your Lunar Guards successful in catching the thief last night?"

In the mysterious land, where the sun shone true and the grass was healthy and green, there was a tall mountain. Along the face of the mountain was a majestic city, built to watch over everything that happened in these fair lands. The majestic city, known to locals as Canterlot, contained a large castle. The castle walls were gleaming white and the tops of the towers were decorated with fancy patterns of yellow, gold and black hues. In one of the halls was a dining hall with a table as long as a school bus. Sitting at the opposite ends of the table were two of the land's most regal and royal ponies, eating their breakfast, sipping tea and discussing the events of the previous night.

The ponies sitting on opposite ends of the table weren't just any mere ponies. Both of these ponies had horns and wings. Such ponies with both horns and wings in creature mythology were referred to as alicorns. They both wore regalia over their bodies, crowns perched on the top of their heads, horseshoes placed in their hooves and necklaces worn around their delicate swan-like necks. In this strange land, the two sister ponies held the title as Princesses of Equestria, each governing the daytime and the nighttime.

The tallest alicorn sitting on one end of the table was colored an ivory white with a mane flowing with an invisible wind. The four colors that flowed with the mane ranged from pink, light green, indigo and turquoise, giving off tiny white sparkles. Her crown, necklace and horseshoes were pure gold, the first two accessories she wore had a purple diamond etched in the front. Her flank depicted an image of the yellow sun with orange flares rising from the center. To her subjects, this alicorn was Princess Celestia, wise immortal ruler of Equestria and Princess of the Day.

The shorter alicorn was colored a navy blue, her mane like the night sky flowing with the unseen wind also. Her regalia was pure ebony black and her necklace depicted a white waxing crescent moon, although her shoes were made a lighter blue. Her flank had what looked like a giant black ink blot, the image within depicting a similar crescent moon. This alicorn was named Princess Luna, the alicorn formerly known as Nightmare Moon, younger sister of Celestia and Princess of the Night.

Luna sipped the tea prepared by her servants, the cup encased in a navy blue glow just like horn was. After drinking the tea, Luna delicately placed the cup on the saucer, the glow surrounding her horn and cup disappearing. "Unfortunately, sister, the thief had managed to elude our best elite of Lunar Guards yet again," Luna informed. "The thief had managed to outrun and outwit even the best of my guards. He is both cunning and fast but we still underestimated him."

"That's not all surprising" Celestia said nonchalantly. She lifted her teacup to her lips, her horn wrapping it up in a golden aura and daintily sipped the drink. "There had been times in the past when thieves and robbers would somehow evade our Guards with just the bat of an eye. Have you resorted to using her magic on him, my sister?"

"I have, Celestia," Luna replied. "But this thief has an extraordinary set of abilities. For one, the thief was completely immune to my magic and he is only an Earth pony. To make matters stranger enough, he runs at a speed that rivals the speed of the Element of Loyalty. Do we have to send her and the Wonderbolts in to catch him?"

"No, Luna. There is no need to send the Wonderbolts in unless I decide how big of a threat he is to our kind." Celestia stifled a giggle, using her magic to keep her teacup floating in midair. She rubbed her chin with her hoof and pondered the situation. "Although, I will have to send Twilight Sparkle a note telling her to be cautious about this 'Blurry Burglar'. We mustn't let a clearly experienced thief rob every noble of their valuables dry."

Celestia's lips was only inches away from making contact with the rim of her teacup...

_TING!_

Suddenly, both of the alicorns felt a powerful jolt in the magic force, powerful enough to make them gasp in fright. Celestia's magic was abruptly halted and her teacup fell to the red rug, shattering into a million pieces. As the tea stain settled into the fabric of the rug, Celestia and Luna found themselves petrified in their chairs, a minute of fearful dead silence passing them like an omen of ill will. Luna turned to her older sister, the fear clearly etched onto her face. "Sister, you've felt it too, haven't you?"

"I'm afraid so, Luna. This sensation is a feeling like no other," Celestia said, scared emotionlessly. "I have not felt this feeling since..."

Luna gasped from realization and covered her mouth, hot fearful tears springing from her eyes. The Princess of the Night sobbed quietly while Celestia remained motionlessly in her seat. Her eyes were as big as her teacup saucers, staring out into the dark recesses of space. Celestia regrettably closed her eyes, a dark image in her mind she thought she would forget for 1,000 years.

Celestia could see it now. She saw an ancient village in the earlier days of Equestria in ruins, the buildings all set ablaze in raging fires and dark eroding smoke. A giant shadowy figure stood in the midst of the burning village, staring at her with gold piercing eyes. The monstrous creature had the top half of a hulking muscular gorilla, curvy pointed horns protruding from the sides of its head. A silver ring hung from its nostrils and its eyes burned with the dark fires of hell. The bottom half of the monster was that of a stallion, leaving death and destruction wherever it went. From the monster's neck was a burlap sack, pulsing with dark purple light like a disembodied beating heart.

The monster turned his head, showing its glowing yellow eyes. One brief look from the demon's eyes was enough to send Celestia into a world of fear and sorrow. She felt herself shudder and frozen as the monster took the pulsing bag and opened up the drawstrings, releasing a torrent of darkness towards her...

"CELESTIA!"

Celestia was snapped from her nightmare by the sound of Luna's yelling, gasping loudly even. She whipped her head around and found herself in the dining hall where she previously was before she fell into that scared trance. Celestia gasped and looked to Luna at the opposite end of the table, seeing Luna's face wrung with concern and sadness. "Dearest sister, are you feeling alight?" Luna asked shakily.

Celestia huffed with her breaths, but she eventually recoiled from her dark vision. Clearing her throat, Celestia reluctantly looked of to Luna, trying to mask her fears behind stoicism. "I'm okay, Luna. Really, I am," the Princess of the Sun said, lifting herself off of her seat to look out the glass windows. "But I fear that is more than I would say for the wellbeing for my subjects. A dark feeling like can only mean one thing, Luna; He is going to return and bring Equestria into everlasting darkness."

Luna quickly jumped off of her seat and cantered towards Celestia, tears dampening her navy blue fur and hugged her tight. "What do we do, sister? You know as well as I do we can't stop His return, no matter how much we can try!" Luna sobbed, burying her face into her sister's chest fur. "We cannot let Equestria fall like He nearly did all those years ago! We've already lost too many good ponies because of him!"

"And we won't, Luna. Not this time." Celestia brought a hoof around Luna's nape and pulled her in for a hug, her wing carefully stroking her back. "Luna, I need you to be strong and listen to me. You must assemble the guards. Tell them to do a watch around Canterlot, 24-7. If the guards see or hear anything suspicious, then they must not hesitate to subdue and question. I'll inform Twilight Sparkle of the situation and tell her to bring her friends. The Elements of Harmony must know of Equestria's Forbidden History if they are to know what they are up against."

Celestia wiped the tear from Luna's face and lifted her chin with her hoof. "Do you understand, Luna?" she asked.

Luna took a deep inhale, breathed out of her mouth and looked up to Celestia's eyes. "I understand, sister." With those three little words said, Luna quickly galloped out of the dining hall with two of the Royal Guards quickly following her. Celestia's horn glowed which brought a scroll with a quill pen out of nowhere. With a few quick dips of the pen, she began to write a letter on the scroll and dictated what she had to write on the paper.

"My former faithful student, Princess Twilight. You and your friends must come to Canterlot as soon as possible..."


	2. Chapter 2: Where Am I?

_"__Where am I?"_

These three simple little words ran through Harold's head as he lied on the flower bed, waiting for his strength to slowly return. His eyelids closed themselves over his eyes, blocking the unforgiving rays of the sun from straining his eyesight. At the moment, Harold's eyes, lungs and brain were the only parts functioning in his body, as if it was a factory slowly regaining power after a blackout. Harold wriggled his fingers and curled them into a fist, the simplest step into his ability to move his muscles. He started off shaky at first, but his hands acted like a weight while Harold pushed himself up off of the ground and into a sitting position.

_"__Good Lord from above, what happened?"_ Harold thought to himself.

Suddenly, a throbbing pain surged inside of his head, his palm instinctively covering his his forehead and shielding his closed eyes. Already, the bright blue shy and the sunlight had created a severe migraine, as if a nuclear bomb was threatening to explode with a brief moment of pain. The ringing in his ears was just as loud as it was painful. He felt he was about to go deaf while his senses struggled greatly to rehabilitate themselves to normal.

It was fortunate enough that the pain had lasted five minutes, what seemed like painful hours to Harold. Hissing his teeth in synch to the throbbing pain, Harold's pain eventually subsided, giving him enough strength to think over the slight headache he unwillingly earned. He reviewed what happened to him last night, or however long he was passed out for.

He recalled what happened to him during the night he passed out. First, he had to pull over into a grassy field, staying there for the night to eat and rest so he would prepare for yet another burning day of bike-riding. He pulled over into the tall grass, made himself a cheese sandwich, turned his iPod on and began to sadly reminisce all of the times he spent with Lana; he even remembered the last few moments he spent with her, images and sounds that would never be easily drained from his mind. He remembered breaking down and screaming into the sky and asked for a sign. He didn't remember much else, except for the winds changing unexpectedly.

That's right. Harold remembered now.

There was that tornado. That big, dark funnel of doom had touched down in the fields, one mile behind where Harold was trying to settle in for the night. Harold remembered feeling so scared that he got on his bike and pedaled it down the highway, pouring all of his strength and speed so he would outrun that swirling vortex of death. But it was no use. Harold remembered feeling himself being pulled inevitably into the storm, beaten mercilessly by the breakneck winds until he blacked out, both from exhaustion and multiple injuries. When he came to, he found himself lying in a bed of flowers.

But where exactly did he find himself in?

With no other but to face the light, Harold removed his hand from his forehead and unshielded his eyes, letting the sunlight shine onto his eyes. His eyes fluttered open, and his field of vision was met with a plane of blurriness. Eventually, Harold's blurry vision eventually cleared up for him, allowing him to see the area he found himself transported to. At first glance, he didn't believe what he saw. After gently rubbing his eyes, Harold looked around and found himself in a state of shock and awe.

He saw himself sitting in a flower bed among a great green field, filled with luscious colors of green, purple, white and dots of yellow in the centers. A line of trees on the far side of the field stretched on for miles, bordering the snowcapped mountains mounting up to the vast blue sky. The celestial blue sea was abundant with fluffy white clouds, some of them creating a white fluffy ring around the two of the taller mountains. The fluffiness of the clouds was nothing else that Harold had ever saw before in his life.

As a matter of fact, this whole field was nothing like Harold saw in the pictures at home. Everything about the field seemed so peculiar, the appearance and height of the mountains catching Harold's growing suspicion. Although Harold scored a "C+" in his grueling geography class, he could easily tell that the field and the very flowers inhabiting it did not appear in any map, brochure or digital photograph. Crossing his arms and huffing with disapproval, Harold came to a theoretical conclusion.

"Oh great, now I'm playing the part of Dorothy," he said to himself.

References to "The Wizard of Oz" aside, Harold took another good look around the field, tapping his finger on his crossed arm with patience. He turned around behind him and looked the second half of the scenery. There, he saw a slightly dense forest where the fourth row of trees became less visible no matter how much Harold squinted to see it better. Then he noticed a single tree stump sprouting from the ground, sitting in the clearing a good distance away from the forest. What leaned and lied on the tree stump were two items that caught Harold by surprise.

"My backpack! My bike!"

Feeling a rush of energy moved within his muscles, Harold got up and ran towards two of his beloved items, nearly staggering when he finally jumped to his feet. He unzipped his backpack and quickly rummaged through all of his stuff, bringing them all out one at a time and assessed the possible damages done by the tornado. To his complete surprise, there were no damages to be found. His bike had no dents, scrapes or scratches on the metal, though his tires were still a little flat from the continuous riding. His backpack had no found rips, exposed material or broken strings. The food content, his sketchbook and his drawing tools all remained in one piece.

Harold was thankful that his possessions weren't hurt by the tornado. If would've been a real tragedy if anything of great value were to be destroyed. Suddenly, a shocking realization swept across him. He had nearly forgotten about the well-being of his most beloved treasure!

"Oh no! My locket! Please tell me it's not..." Harold stretched the collar of his shirt out and thrust his hand inside, groping the inside of the cotton garment until his fingers felt something cold and metallic. Gently gripping it and pulling it out, Harold looked around his locket and sighed with relief, seeing his beloved trinket devoid of scratched, dents or dirty smudges.

"Oh. Oh, thank God you're alright. Thank God," Harold said, heaving heavy breaths of relief before he threw his back to force a giggle out. Then he took his shirt and rubbed the golden texture of the locket, wiping away any possible smudges from its refined beauty. After giving it a few firm, gentle scrubs, Harold hugged the locket to his cheek and kissed it lightly before he tucked it away, safe in his shirt to avoid it being spotted by any possible thieves or muggers.

That was when something puzzling flashed across his mind.

Harold jerked his head around, taking in the view of the field again while many conundrums jumbled inside of his mind. Something didn't feel right. A tornado of immense size and wind power had enough power to kill a single human being in a minute, and yet, he was sitting down on the stump, feeling very much alive as the next guy. Harold specifically remembered his stuff getting torn apart by the swirling winds, and now they were somehow unharmed and in one piece. He was biking down the endless, barren plains when the tornado happened, but he found himself stranded in the middle of a field with mountains, trees and flowers. No trace of any trailing destruction left behind.

What was going on here? How did Harold and his stuff end up in this unknown field? More importantly, how did they survive such a terrible ordeal? Was he in a dream, induced by sever head trauma that lapsed him into a coma. Did he... die? Was he finally in Heaven?

Harold huffed a worried sigh, looking up to the blue sky, his fingers nervously drumming his arms. This couldn't possibly be what Heaven looked like. If this was Heaven, then he would've met with the spirit of Lana right about now. Not only that, but Heaven was paradise riding among the clouds, so Harold quickly dismissed his death theory. If this really was Heaven, the lands would actually be an endless plain of clouds looking over the mortal people, unaware that a higher force was watching over him. So this had to be some sort of dream. There was no way a tornado that powerful would fling him all the way out here and expect that he and his stuff remained as good as new. Who knows; maybe he _did_ survive, but a blunt force was applied to his brain, so he fell into a really long coma.

Harold nodded in accord to his own theory. It seemed highly plausible; after all, the human teen had vivid dreams about being out in the warm ocean, only to wake up to find his bed wet and smelled like pee. So, if this was a dream, then Harold would have to try some measures to assure that he was alive and well in the material world. Harold reached over and pinched his fingers on his forearm, wincing and grunting with pain. When he released his pinching, Harold opened his eyes and found himself in the same field.

Now, Harold wasn't one for masochism and accepting the theory of an unknown phenomenon right off the bat. But, in this case for the bewildered teenager, Harold would have to pinch his arm again, adding in more time to hold his skin and applying more force to the pinch for better results.

Harold took his arm again, pinched it for about fifteen seconds and then released it, grunting in pain once more. When he looked up, he still found himself sitting in the same field like before. Harold pinched his arm again, holding it again for about thirty seconds. He looked around, and still, he was in the same field. Harold tried once more for about forty-five seconds... one minute... one minute and fifteen seconds... one and a half minutes... and he was still in the field.

Harold groaned with disappointment and fell on his back, looking up to the sky as his arms marked the diameter of the stump. His arm was bruised red, the mark of a failed wake-up experiment. Rubbing his arm, Harold thought of another way to ensure that what he saw and felt was all a dream. Then he perked with an idea. Usually, in the cartoons he read and watched, in order for the main character to escape the dream world, he would have to sleep in the dream world and wake up in the real world. It seemed like a long shot, but what other choice did he have? He needed to wake up so he could fulfill his promise.

Harold gently closed his eyes, his eyeball muscles still a little bit sore from the strain. Three minutes slowly came and went. Harold lied down on the stump with his eyes closed hoping to see if he would wake from this strange but wondrous "dream." He doubt he would now, but he was sue that someone might spot his immobile and send him off to a hospital somewhere. Hopefully it wasn't like the money-grubbing HMO hospitals in New York City. He would have hell to face with his father if he ever returned home.

When five minutes finally passed, Harold opened his eyes and looked up from his lying position. Apparently, the theory about sleeping in the dream world was also a hoax, so that meant he wasn't dreaming at all. Regardless, Harold felt distraught as he kept lying on the tree stump, heaving out a stressed sigh. Where exactly was he? Was this really reality and not some top government experimental dome that monitored his every move? How did he get here? The most important question was one that Harold had to know: where exactly was he?

Suddenly, Harold felt his face assaulted by a tabloid newspaper. Harold squawked surprised as he tried to fight off the paper covering his entire face, smacking the paper off before he grabbed it to examine the news of the world. He needed to know where he was and what day it was since he woke up from his blackout, so it was convenient that a stray newspaper was flying with the breeze. According to the newspaper, the date on the top center of the newspaper said _March 15th, 2014._

The date sated Harold's question about what day he woke up on. The previous day was the 14th of March, so this was the fifth day since he ran away from his home. Harold read the newspaper, trying to get the answers he needed; where he mysteriously landed, if there was any civilization nearby, the whole nine yards.

As he looked through the newspaper, Harold only found himself growing confused with every passage misspelling the names of cities, like "Manehattan," "San Flanksisco" and "Trottingham." The pictures published in the newspaper depicted strange buildings, and horses dressed in tuxedos, high-class dresses and tattoos plastered on their flanks. The more Harold read through the paper, the more agitated he became. The nerve of these people subduing their horses to clothing and tattoos! What sort of newspaper was this anyway!?

Harold turned the pages to the front page and read the title.

_Equestria Daily._

_TING!_

That's when Harold first felt it, like something cracked deep within his brain. A deep throbbing began to thump in his brain, cold sweat trickling down his forehead and slight dizziness taking him. Harold didn't know what caused this strange sensation... this strange "sense" as he would call it. It felt like something forgotten had been unlocked, and the name of the land he was in was the figurative key. Equestria... why did sound so familiar to him?

With his hands losing all sense of feeling, the tabloids were released from his grip, drifting away with the spring breeze.

* * *

In the heart of Equestria, just southwest of Canterlot Mountain, there was a small town called Ponyville. The town was mostly lined with timber-framed cottages, thatched rooftops providing those buildings with cover and display. Local shops brightened the town with various odd shapes and colorful patterns, lighting the town with its most beautiful splendor. A great circular clearing stood around the center of Ponyville, and in that very center, a tall round tower rose up over the buildings to symbolize the heart of the prospering village. Ponyville's history, friendly townsfolk and its apple farm were among the many highlights of the village's culture, but that was only half of what it was famous for.

In one part of Ponyville was a gigantic tree that stood out from the rest of the village, hollowed out to be used for as a home and the public library. The Golden Oaks Library, a landmark considered by the citizens, featured two floors and a basement, a kitchen, a bathroom and the main library lobby built and expanded on the ground floor. The upstairs floor featured another part of the library, adding in a pony-sized bed and a balcony where an astronomical telescope was placed to observe the stars. The glass windows on the upper floor were framed specifically to resemble patterns of branches. On the front door was an image of a lit candle while the sign out front depicted an open book.

Sure, the Golden Oaks Library looked like an ordinary library, carved into the interior of a tree. But, if a local from Ponyville would overhear from another pony that it was just another boring place to read books, then that local would scold him or her about saying such stuff to the library. It wasn't because the tree had a longer history than the town Ponyville ever did, but because the library was a residence to Equestria's newest and youngest ascended member of Equestria royalty: Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle, and her baby dragon assistant, Spike were both taught and raised by Princess Celestia herself when Twilight was only a unicorn. It was with the Magic of Friendship that Ponyville's premiere librarian had recently ascended into an alicorn after she finished an incomplete spell cast by Star Swirl the Bearded, Twilight's historic hero and the strongest unicorn who had ever lived.

Twilight's coat was colored a lavender color, a dark purple mane and tail streaked with brilliant pink and regular violet stripes. The mark on her flank was a raspberry six-pointed star, layering over a white six-pointed star while five similar but smaller stars surrounded it. The golden crown that she wore on occasion reached behind her ears and in the very center was a magenta jewel, greatly resembling Twilight's starry mark.

Twilight's horn emitted a similarly colored aura, levitating the books in the air as she carefully skimmed through the books from the history section of the library. She closed the book and let it fall to the floor, then turned her attention to the center of the ground floor. "Spike, where are the books I requested on the complete biography of Star Swirl the Bearded?"

"Right here, Twilight." Spike, the baby bipedal dragon, carried about seven books in his arms which contradicted with the strength of his young draconic muscles. He barely stood taller than an average sized filly, but his height was enough to reach up to the base of Twilight's neck. His scales were pale purple color, his underbelly, ears and spines a lime green shade and his pupils like reptilian narrow slits. When Twilight magically lifted the books out of Spike's grasp, the struggling weight took its toll and the baby dragon's arms deflated with exhaustion and dropped like expired party balloons.

"Thank you, Spike," Twilight said nonchalantly, opening up the books and immediately examining them.

"Hey, Twilight? I don't mean to sound so skeptical about this," Spike said, massaging his burning forearms. "But why are you so interested in researching this guy in the first place? I know he's the guy who made those spells that you practiced, including the one that turned you into the princess you are now, but haven't you already read up on him when you first began your studies in Canterlot?"

"That was different, Spike," Twilight said, focused intensely on her books. "When I first studied under Princess Celestia, I only read up on his spells that he conjured up before the founding of Equestria. But ever since I've learned to control my magic, I wanted to research on Star Swirl the Bearded's life so bad that I made it my own personal project to write my own biography on him."

"Okay, I get why you want research the guy, but why do you want to do it today?" Spike asked. "Doesn't Princess Celestia have any royal duties for you to do?"

"Princess Celestia hasn't assigned me any royal duties today, Spike. We would both know she's assigning me any duties if she sent me a letter through you." Spike couldn't argue with Twilight's statement; he knew exactly well when Twilight was correct. As a newborn dragon, Celestia enchanted Spike's fire to magically transfer parchment scrolls and anything attached to those notes between her and Twilight. As of today, there weren't any notes that Spike recently belched out worth mentioning. The baby dragon could never argue with that.

"But there is a plus side to this, Spike. I haven't been able to catch up on my research since I first moved here, so this may be one of the only times I have to continue my assignment." Twilight quickly skimmed the pages and examined every highlight of each chapter. Then her face grew contorted with confusion, an eyebrow cocked up to display her reaction.

"Hmm? Well this is certainly strange," she said, looking back in her book.

"What? What's strange?" Spike asked.

Twilight quickly moved another book towards her, skimmed the pages for their highlights and moved on to yet another book. "These books never say exactly _how_ Star Swirl became the greatest unicorn that Equestria ever knew. All they keep saying is that Star Swirl was a regular old unicorn who conjured and perfected every known spell in the book; but when Princess Celestia and Luna became princesses, his fame became well known across the whole land of Equestria and nothing else. This doesn't make any sense."

Twilight quickly skimmed through the contents of her last book for any important information, only to find herself disappointed with unsatisfying results. She slammed the book shut, let it fall on the meticulously stacked books and turned to her dragon assistant. "Spike, could you go into the basement and find some books relating to Star Swirl the Bearded? One of those books has got to have information on how his name was really made around the world."

Spike lifted his index claw. "Um, Twilight, don't you think that looking through those books might come up with the same result?" he asked. "Because if you keep trying to find answers you want, you'll just end up obsessing over the same thing until-"

"Spike," Twilight interjected. "Books. Basement. Star Swirl. Research. Now."

Spike grunted, turning to the staircase deadpanning. "And here I thought my arms wouldn't get any more sorer than they already are."

All of a sudden, Spike clutched his stomach and his cheeks inflated, feeling a rising pang inside. He belched out green flames that magically transformed into a scroll, sealed in a red ribbon and a gold seal with a horseshoe engraved in the piece. "It's a letter from Princess Celestia," Spike stated as Twilight levitated the scroll to her. "So what was that you were saying about not having any duties?"

Twilight gave a deadpanned look to Spike, who grinned under her gaze. She rolled her eyes and unraveled the ribbon, opening the scroll for her to read. Twilight's eyes traveled along the written text, thoroughly traveling along to the paper before she shot them back to the left side corners of her eyes. She gasped when she fully read the growing crisis stated by her former mentor.

_My former faithful student, Princess Twilight Sparkle._

_You and your friends must come to Canterlot as soon as possible._

_A few minutes ago, Luna and I sensed the presence of an all-too familiar threat somewhere in Equestria. The bringer of this threat is a creature not from our world. I cannot give you anymore details through this letter, Twilight, for I fear it may draw the attention from our old foes._

_I need you and your friends to assemble in Ponyville square. I have already sent chariots to escort you to Canterlot Castle. They will arrive shortly. Tell nopony else, especially Spike, of what I am about to tell you today._

_Sincerely,_

_~Princess Celestia_

"Twilight?" asked Spike. "What's wrong?"

Twilight sighed as she magically rolled up the scroll and tossed it in the nearby wastebasket with her magic. "Spike, help me gather the girls for Ponyville square," Twilight said, her voice becoming serious and direct. "Princess Celestia needs us in Canterlot, pronto!"


	3. Chapter 3: I Come in Peace

Harold didn't know what he was feeling. His head swam in a miasmatic sea of confusion, sweat trickling down his face and shocked blue eyes staring out into the depths of space. The only sound Harold could hear was the beating of his heart, unaware that he grasped the air where he held the drifting newspaper. It was because of the name of the newspaper that he felt completely perplexed. The name, "Equestria" sounded familiar... strangely familiar.

Harold swore he knew that place from somewhere but he couldn't put his finger on it. It was the strangest feeling; like a nagging voice ranting somewhere in the deep recesses of his brain, Harold felt something reawaken inside of him from a long slumber. Gripping both sides of his head, Harold tried to dig deeper into this feeling, this "sense" as he called it. Equestria, the name of the land, had to be planted somewhere in his memories. As he tried to push forward into finding the answers he needed, Harold felt his head throb with pain. Something was keeping him from finding those answers. What was it about Equestria that made Harold feel this way? Why couldn't he remember!?

Then a sharp pain veered Harold from his thoughts, like a thorn had pricked his frontal lobe. The pain was excruciating. Harold felt like his head would explode like an atom bomb, splattering it over the fresh, green grass. It took only a matter of moments for the migraine slowly shrunk away back into numbness. Harold massaged his temples, trying again to ponder his current predicament, only for it to be washed away with the ebbing pain. Everything that Harold wanted to know, from how he arrived in Equestria and his familiarity with this place to how he would find a way back to the main highway was completely lost.

Disappointed, Harold back fell into a slump on the stump, wondering what he was supposed to do now. He had to get out of this crazy place. He needed to find a way out and get back to the main highway. It was the only was that Harold could ensure that his promise to Lana could finally be fulfilled. Where was he supposed to go? What was he going to do now? Then, a tiny flicker of inspiration was lit.

Maybe a little drawing and some classic music would help him to clear his head. Not only that, it was also an opportunity to see if he could break out of his "artist's block." This land he found himself in inspired him to draw once again. Harold brought his backpack to his lap and unzipped it, reaching for his sketchbook inside. He brought out his sketchbook and a Ziploc bag, containing colored pencils of every sort, from ebony black to bright white. Lying on top of the pencils was a black mechanical pencil which he received as a Christmas present last year.

Clicking the back of the pencil, Harold reached in his pocket and pulled out his iPod. Like his bike, backpack and everything else inside, the iPod showed no significant or insignificant damage. Harold turned his iPod on. The battery life was revealed to have twenty-eight percent left, having so little time left in this place to be powered up. Harold switched the music to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 since he decided that the sunny, peaceful setting deserved the gracefulness of Ludwig's music. Also, it helped him to concentrate and block out any unnecessary distractions while he drew.

Harold shifted in his seating and looked out to the distant field. He began to quickly scan the field, his eyes recording every detail he could see; the distance of the field, the height of the mountains and the wispy curls of the passing clouds. Every hill became a smaller mound in the distance and the tiny brush trees bordered the uprising mountains, increasing in size as Harold trailed the trees coming closer with his eyes. All of the field were slowly being developed in his head as if his eyes and his mind were a digital camera. Within minutes, Harold fully captured the scene and every little detail inside.

Harold hit "play" on his iPod and he began to draw.

The first thing that Harold did was outline the hills. A good cartoonist not only had to start with the basic lines and curves before he could add in any detail, but to start with a gentle stroke so the mistakes could be easily erased. So, he started off with outlining the closest hill to him, a declining curve which sloped downwards to the right until it slightly became horizontal, reaching the end of the sideways-turned sheet of paper. Then he added in another hill, starting from the right side of the paper, crossing the near midsection of the slope and to the left side. Finally, the third and final hill was added in, a very slightly curving arc stretching across the paper. Harold gave his outlines a more visible lining, erasing the excess lines after doing so.

Harold went on to the mountains. It was fairly easy to draw the mountains here in Equestria, just drawing three steep humps and curving them perfectly like a hill on a roller coaster. The snow covering the peaks of the mountains were quite simple as well, like drawing stalactites with a curvier point. When the mountains were done being drawn, Harold drew smaller curves at the base of the mountains, signifying the location and the sizes of the trees he was adding in. Within the arcs of the curves, Harold drew in even smaller, abundant curves where the treetops were with careful precision. Finally, to end the outlining session, Harold carefully added in the clouds, starting off as underdeveloped overlapping circles on top of a flat line with a curved side. Harold added in small arcs between those circles, drew the wispy curls at both ends and used the curls to finish detailing the clouds. The excess lines were all erased and shavings fell onto the paper, only to be blown away by Harold's breath. The tall strands of grass and the flowers were added into the foreground, thus marking the ending of the sketching.

With the field now outlined and out of the way, it was finally time for Harold's favorite part of the drawing: coloring his artwork in. Harold reached for his pencil bag and pulled out several colored pencils. The colors he carefully chose for this artwork were three different shades of green, two shades of sky and light blue, purple, white and yellow. As a cartoonist, Harold learned to choose the colors of an art piece and determine which shade was the most appropriate for his drawings. As such, Harold chose a light shade of green for the grass and colored in the grass, moving the pencil into one single diagonal scribbling pattern so he would mess it up by mixing it up with a different scribbling pattern. Next, Harold went for the trees, using the two duller shades of green.

This was where it go tricky for Harold, because he was still a growing student when it came to mixing colored pencils. Harold took the shades of green and began to lightly stroke the trees with a lesser dull green, coloring only the bottom half of the trees with that color. He mixed in the duller green color with the other green shade, which came out well much to Harold's surprise, coloring in the rest of the trees. Harold set his green pencils into the bag and moved on to the sky, where he planned to mix in the light blue and the sky blue into one single sky. He took the light blue and lightly colored in the bottommost part of his drawing, leaving some of the sky glowing white around the base of the mountains. Then he advanced his light blue pencil up to the middle of the sky, careful not to color over the clouds. When the light blue finally served its purpose for this drawing he took the sky blue and carefully mixed it in with the light blue, filling in the rest of the sky.

Harold smiled at his drawing. His ability to mix in colors must've grown since his month of depression and sadness, after Lana had passed away. When Lana died nearly a month ago, Harold suffered from total pain, sadness and isolation. There was no drawing he would have done that helped to express how he felt during that month. It was then that Harold first suffered "artist's block," the two words that most artists dreaded suffering from. Up until now, Harold could not find the inspiration to draw anything, even with the most beautiful of nights giving him peaceful slumber. But now... now it was different. It was as if the land itself was open to be shown in the most artistic and meaningful way by Harold's hand.

As Harold put away the two shades of blue into the bag, a noise caught his ears. Despite Beethoven's music playing inside his earphones, Harold could hear that noise over the volume, coming from the forest behind him. Putting his music on pause, Harold turned to the forest, removed his earphones and listened closely. It sounded like singing echoing from all the way in the forest, sung by an angelic voice calling out to him in a soft and beautiful melody. For a moment, Harold felt himself entranced by the song. Then he snapped himself out of his trance, shook his head and stood up from the stump. He knew the singing meant that there was civilization nearby. If he could find whoever was nearby, then she would direct him back to the main highway.

Tucking his iPod away in his pocket and packing his artistic tools in his backpack, Harold stood his bike up and traversed into the forest, following the sweet sound of the music. The forest he traveled through was fairly thick, most of the area covered with gargantuan trees and oversized brush. Harold heard the sounds of fauna inhabiting the forest chirping, croaking and chittering in a perfect chorus as rays of sunlight peered down through the trees, giving spots of bright illumination to reveal his path through the thick flora. It was everything that a peaceful forest was that Harold would ask for.

Harold stopped in the middle of the forest. He put a hand to his ear, drowning out the sounds of the animals. Through the singing birds and the buzzing cicadas, Harold heard the singing become louder, the harmonious tune nearly lulling him into a blissful trance. His eyes slowly fluttered closed, but an unconscious slap to the face helped him to wake up from the trance. As he listened closer, Harold heard the song of a bird, repeating the sweet sounding notes with a heavenly whistle. It was just as Harold thought; he was getting closer to civilization.

Harold trudged through the forest, pushing away branches and giant leaves away from his path with one hand while traveling the bike by the handlebars with the other. He walked, and walked, and walked non-stop towards the mysterious voice singing such a heavenly hymn to be repeated by an obedient bird. In five minutes of walking through the forest, Harold spotted an opening, glowing with white, radiant sunlight. Harold carefully tiptoed over to the opening and set his bike down against the tree, kicking his kickstand down before he crouched behind the brush.

It was a nasty thing to do, Harold knew that already, but what other way was there to determine the owner of the voice being either benevolent or bedeviling?

Through the opening of the edge of the forest, Harold peeked and saw something that peaked his interest by tenfold. He saw a cottage, approximately two stories high with a shrubbery roof sitting near a small creek. Birdhouses and small mammalian holes were decorated all over the front yard while a small dock was housed underneath a small bridge, all housing birds and animals of different size and color. The design of the cottage itself reminded Harold of the Shire from the "Lord of the Rings" movies.

The beautiful voice began to sing once again, hitting a few octaves repeated by the bird's musical whistle. Harold knew the singing was coming from inside of the cottage. Harold stroked his chin, a plan slowly formulating inside of his head. If this place was where the owner of that voice lived, then maybe, just maybe she would be able to help him find a way back to the main highway. Harold nodded in accord to his own plan. It was a long shot, he knew that too, but it was the only way to ensure him that he was a step closer to his dream of being a cartoonist and fulfilling Lana's promise.

Suddenly, the hinges on the door squeaked while the wooden portal slowly swing open. Harold ducked himself behind the brush and waited to see the owner step outside and reveal herself. What he saw instead resulted in a mix between confusion and wonder.

Stepping out from the doorway was a yellow-colored pony, a long pink mane drooping from the top of its head. Her flank was plastered with tattoos of three tiny blue butterflies with pink wings and two curly antennas. Perched on top of the pony's back was an adult blue jay, its stomach area wrapped up in gauze and bandages just below the feathers. Harold felt his inner anger boil inside, clenching his fist tightly. The owner of the cottage had the absolute nerve to color her pet pony like she was promoting Easter weekend, and it wasn't even April yet! And what was with the blue jay being wrapped up in bandages!? The owner must've been a veterinarian and yet, she totally disregarded the pony's health by dying it yellow, pink with three tattoos on the side of its butt! Just what was it that these people with coloring and dressing up their pet horses!?

Before Harold rose up to confront the owner, he saw the blue jay fly away from the pony's back, perched atop of a branch next to a birdhouse. The pony sprouted wings from its sides and fluttered up to that same branch, smiling with joy. Harold felt himself gasp then vigorously rubbed his eyes, dumbfounded by what he saw at first. Then after blinking rapidly a few times, Harold looked back and saw that pony still hovering in the air... with it's wings still attached to its sides, flapping majestically like a bird!

Harold felt himself appalled by this turn of events. Had he seen this right!? Had he just saw a pegasus, a mythological horse with bird wings planted on its sides!? This was unreal... no, unreal wasn't even the right word that he could describe what he felt! Pegasus were supposed to be fictional creatures! There was no way Harold was seeing what he was seeing! He _knew_ that tornado did a lot more damage to his head than he realized! How else would he be able to witness a fictional creature, even learn to combine colors in his drawing!?

"Okay, Mr. Blue Jay," the pegasus said in the most gentlest of voices. "Now you stay out of the forest for three days and get plenty of rest and your tummy will be healed in no time at all. Come see me if you feel any discomfort in your tummy area."

Harold's jaw dropped when he heard the pegasus talk. This wasn't possible! There was no way that pegasus talked to that blue jay, and understood what the bird was telling her! What in the name of God was going on here!? Harold felt his body assaulted by little electrical currents running through his veins as he was hit by a shocking revelation. That pegasus and that voice... she couldn't have been who he thought she was!

But it was. The yellow pegasus fluttered over to the blue jay and, to Harold's complete horror, began to sing an unfamiliar tune. The blue jay repeated the tune, earning another smile from the pegasus as she nuzzled the bird.

"There, that's better. It seems your singing is now back to normal," said the pegasus. The bandaged bird whistled happily before it turned and hopped back into the birdhouse. "Oh, you're welcome. I'm glad I was able to help."

Harold's heart sunk like a stone and fell backwards on his behind. No, there was no way that was her, but there was no denying it now! The owner of that sweet song belonged to that talking pegasus! Harold felt his whole heart stop at that moment, nervous beads of sweat trickling down the side of his face. He had enough of this nonsense! He had to get the hell out of here before this whole situation drove him mad! Harold quickly and quietly got up and turned to fetch his bike...

_SNAP!_

... and flinched as the sound of a broken twig coincided with his flattening sole. He looked down and saw it _was_ a twig, a conveniently fallen part of a tree which Murphy's Law happened to conveniently place it just for him, so he would be discovered right out in the open. Harold reluctantly turned his head, his half-fearful, half-crazed face meeting with the frightened and curious look of the pegasus. None of them moved or made a sound as their surprised looks locked on to each other like a couple of owls staring at each other from a good distance away. The silence between them was deafening, even the forest's were drowned out by their reactions, until...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"WWWWAAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Both Harold and the pegasus screamed after one another and darted behind the nearest tree they could find. Harold panted heavily and clasped his hand around his heart, the organ beating like a tribal drum. The drops of nervous sweat became a monsoon of cool bodily saltwater pouring down his head and soaking the collar of his shirt. Harold swore he felt his pants become wet too, but he hoped to God that was sweat.

Harold swallowed down some air and saliva before he reluctantly peeked his head out from around the tree, seeing the pegasus do the same. With a brief yelp, both of them retreated their heads back, shaken by the big scare they experienced. Still, Harold felt ashamed of himself. To think he was easily scared by a flying pony just because it had wings and a sweet voice! Like Lana always said, "don't judge the cover by the book unless you've read more than three chapters of the novel." In this case, Harold was afraid just because the creature he saw was possibly a friendly pegasus, though he wondered if the pegasus was thinking the same thing.

Swallowing one final time, Harold slowly turned away from his hiding place, the pegasus doing the same. Carefully they inched towards each other, not making any sudden movements that would send them into another brief moment of panic. When the two finally came close enough together, Harold reached his hand towards the pegasus's hoof, the tip of his fingers making contact. Like a static shock, Harold and the pegasus jumped back with a yelp, but they did not run away. Instead they stood their ground, though the pegasus hid her face inside of her mane, looking at him with shy, puppy eyes. It was... rather cute for Harold. His heart was already pounding out of shock to be reacting to the pony's timid cuteness.

"P-P-Please... d-d-d-don't eat m-m-me," the pegasus squeaked as she shivered like a frozen animal.

Harold tilted his head, a plain but dumbfounded expression grown on his face. Did she really expect that Harold was going to eat her just because he was a human? Not that he would blame the pegasus for being scared of him. She probably hadn't seen a human like him in all of her life.

Forcing a friendly smile on his face, Harold squatted down to the pegasus's level and held his upturned hand to her. "Hey, it's okay, little fella. I'm not gonna hurt you or anything," Harold said calmingly. "I'm not even thinking about eating you. I would never eat or harm any living creature, alright? There's no need for you to be afraid of me."

Harold's assurance seemed to calm down the pegasus. She managed to stop her trembling, but she kept her face hidden from the long curtains that was her mane. If Harold didn't know any better, he would say the pegasus was just like he was when he was younger: timid, afraid and nervous. To him, he was looking at an incarnation of his easily scared side in the form of a delicate, female winged pony. The pony drew circles in the dirt with her hoof, giving Harold a single second of sideways glances before looking away to ground. Harold may have said he was a vegetarian, but that did nothing to ease the nervousness of meeting another intelligent creature. Breathing deep through his nose, Harold reluctantly broke the awkward silence between them.

"I should probably start off with the introductions, then," Harold said, not believing he was talking to a mythical flying pony. "Hi, my name is Harold DeMatt. In case you were wondering, I'm called a human or_homo sapiens_ if you prefer the scientific terms. I take it you haven't seen my kind around here before?"

The pegasus glanced back up to Harold and shook her head. She turned her attention back to the ground, drawing another circle in the dirt while Harold sighed lightly. Turned out there was no other humans inhabiting this strange yet wondrous land, much to his dismay. The ice-breaking between him and the pony didn't work either. Scratching his head, Harold came with another way to help himself break out of the awkward moment. It was then that an idea popped up inside of his head.

"You know, back where I come from, we have ponies like yourself, but they didn't have any wings," Harold explained to the pegasus. "In fact, those sorts of ponies don't exist back home. They don't talk, they don't sing or tend to the needs of animals. Come to think of it, the closest I came to a talking horse is Mr. Ed. That reminds me, you wouldn't have any television around here, do you?"

The pegasus looked at Harold with confusion. From the way she eyed him through her elongated mane, Harold assumed there was no technology in Equestria, let alone a simple television set. "Oh, sorry I asked," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but do _you_ have a name for yourself, Miss Pegasus?"

The pegasus kept her glance towards the unknown creature. She looked away from him and mumbled something inaudible, making it hard for Harold to make out what she said. "I'm sorry, what was that you said?" Harold asked.

"Mumm. Mumm Fruterrmmsh."

Harold leaned in a little closer. The mumbling was made audible and a little clearer, but the words were still scrambled. "One more time, please?" he asked politely.

A few seconds of silence passed through them like ghosts. After using that time to muster up a little bit of courage, the timid pegasus looked Harold in his curious eyes and squeaked her name out, this time loud enough for him to just barely make it out.

"I'm... I'm Fluttershy."

* * *

_**BAM!**_

The door to the Golden Oaks Library swung open, slamming the outer wall. Twilight Sparkle cantered out of the library and into the open streets of Ponyville, carrying Spike on her back. Spike held on to Twilight's neck as she galloped past the denizens of Ponyville, ignoring the formal greetings given to her. Wether it was a nice "hello," a wave of their hoof or a respectful bow to their newest princess, Twilight would've addressed such politeness and insist they treat her as a fellow pony, not a member of royalty.

But that wasn't today. Today, she was on a mission to assemble her friends, the Elements of Harmony and respond to Princess Celestia's urgent matter. She was too busy to even acknowledge the ponies' politeness, though she cast them a sideways glance while she galloped to her friends' houses. Spike managed to keep his hold on Twilight's neck while his adoptive sister jeered around a turn and made a beeline for Sugarcube Corner.

"So, what's the big mission, Twilight?" Spike asked. "Aren't you gonna fill me in on this mission? Maybe I can help out, too. You know, like how I helped out when you entrusted the fate of the Crystal Empire to me while we were fighting King Sombra."

Twilight kept her eyes on the path, not looking back to Spike riding on her back. "I'm sorry Spike, but Princess Celestia says this mission is strictly on a need-to-know basis," she informed. "The letter said not to speak to anypony else besides my friends of the coming crisis and I'm afraid that includes you too, Spike."

The baby dragon groaned dishearteningly and lowered his eyes. "Don't take this the wrong way, Spike. It's not like I don't want you come to Canterlot with the girls and I," Twilight explained. "It's just that this is a very important emergency from Princess Celestia and she asked it to be confidential. She doesn't want anypony who stumbled upon any piece of information to be a target for our enemies. That's why I can't tell you, Spike, because I don't want to see you hurt."

Spike inhaled deeply and sighed, still feeling crestfallen. "I understand, Twilight."

"I knew you would, Spike," Twilight said before she slowed her galloping to a halt. "Oh, good, we're here."

Spike looked up from his disheartening gaze and looked up to the building that Twilight stopped at. The place was Ponyville's premiere bakery and sweet shop, Sugarcube Corner. The building resembled a giant gingerbread house, complete with a roof with frosting curled around the edges of the rooftops. The two top floors that towered over the building resembled two cupcakes stacked on one another, with pink icing and three lit candles on top of the topmost cupcake. Sugarcube Corner was known for its sweets and its lounging area, and it happened to be the home of one of Twilight's dear and most important friends.

Twilight approached the front door and heaved a worried sigh. "Okay, Spike, let's put on our best smiles and pray that Pinkie Pie's home. I have a bad feeling that this has to be the biggest emergency that Princess Celestia has informed me about."

"What kind of emergency!?"

Twilight yelped as she jumped three feet into the air by the high-pitched cheery voice. Spike was thrown backwards from Twilight's back and plunged head first into the soil beneath him, leaving only the rest of his draconic body to wriggle and push himself out. The young alicorn hovered in midair with her wings as she turned and glared at the pink pony lying on the ground, rolling on the dirt while she giggled away at the scared reaction.

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight grumbled.

The pink pony was called Pinkie Pie, short for Pinkamena Diane Pie. As her name suggested, Pinkie Pie's coat, mane and tail were all colored pink, up to the point where her happy demeanor was tickled pink. Her mane and tail appeared poofy as her personality and her flank depicted three balloons, two of them blue with yellow strings and one yellow with a blue string. Pinkie Pie wore a smile that seemed to never go away, except for when she was sad or angry if somepony broke her signature Pinkie Promises.

That same smile was plastered onto Pinkie's face as she kept laughing to the comical scared reaction from her best friend forever. Wiping a tear and snorting in between breaths, Pinkie Pie finished laughing while Twilight lowered herself to the ground. "Oh, Twilight! You and Spike should've seen the looks on your faces! It was priceless!" Pinkie Pie said, returning to her giggling.

"Pinkie! You know how much I hate it when you do that!" Twilight snapped.

"Aww, come on Twilight, lighten up! You know as well as everypony else in Ponyville that all of my jokes are all in good, clean fun!" Pinkie Pie replied with a high chortle. "Besides, everypony gets a good laugh if you get scared out of your wits even though nopony intended fo you to jump like a scaredy-cat!"

Twilight stared at Pinkie Pie with a look, half-deadpanning and half-glare before she heaved a calming sigh. "Yeah, we'll see if you can still get to have your 'good, clean fun' after we get back from Canterlot. Princess Celestia informed me that there's a growing threat somewhere in Equestria and she needs us and the girls to meet up at Ponyville square right away!"

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie's bubbly laughter popped to halt which was replaced with a shocked gasp. "A threat!? Somewhere in Equestria!?" Pinkie Pie gasped once more, holding the sides of her head with her hooves. "Oh no, what's happening!? Is Nightmare Moon back to plunge Equestria into eternal night again!?"

"No, Pinkie. It's a..."

"Is Discord creating chaos again!?"

"Pinkie, this is a..."

"No, wait, let me guess! Are the changelings invading Canterlot again!?"

"Pinkie..."

"Oh no! I bet it's even worse! The flour factories were all shut down by some greedy fatcat and now they stopped making bags of flour!"

"PINKIE PIE!"

Twilight's newly acquired Royal Canterlot Voice compelled Pinkie Pie's slight hyperactive panicking to screech to a halt. She was reluctant to use the Voice, since she wasn't one to raise her voice out for any reason whatsoever. If by any chance she couldn't throw her voice in whether it was an angry throng or Pinkie's mindless chattering, an exception had to be made. Twilight brought a hoof to her chest and breathed in, then exhaled while extending her hoof outwards. She trotted up to Pinkie Pie and formed a little huddle with her, keeping her voice to a dull roar.

"Look, Pinkie, this is a very serious and private matter. Like I said, Princess Celestia said she needed us and the girls out to Ponyville square so we would meet up with her sent chariots to bring us to Canterlot," Twilight informed solemnly with a face as somber as her tone. "I'll explain the situation with you and the others on the way. Meanwhile, I need you to round up Applejack and Rarity while I look in the skies for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash."

Twilight grabbed both of Pinkie's cheeks and brought her close to her face, seriousness burning into the pink pony's eyes like a laser. "And _don't_ tell everypony else but our friends about this," Twilight ordered through her teeth. "This mission is highly confidential. One little slip of the tongue and our enemies could hear about it, you understand?"

Pinkie nodded, whimpering an affirmation between her squished cheeks. Twilight released her grip on Pinkie's face, dropping her to the ground with an "OOF!" and sighed. "Alright, then. Pinkie, you go find Applejack and Rarity and bring them to Ponyville square. I'm gonna look in Cloudsdale and see if I can find Rainbow and Fluttershy there. Remember..." Twilight narrowed her eyes and roughly poked Pinkie in the chest. "...keep this mission between us and the girls. No blabbermouthing. Got it?"

To keep her word, Pinkie Pie zipped her hoof across her mouth as if she was closing a zipper, a serious expression given before the serious scowl turned into a cheerful smile.

With much done, Pinkie Pie bounced up and turned to the opposite direction and trotted off to the outskirts of Ponyville, singing a jovial, pointless tune. Twilight rolled her eyes. This was a mission that was supposed to be taken seriously, but it was obvious that Pinkie Pie didn't take it that seriously. She would never understand how Pinkie Pie would smile while the fate of Equestria stood on the brink of an upcoming crisis. After shaking her head, Twilight levitated Spike from the dirt upside down, the dragon spitting out earth soil from his mouth.

"Spike, this is no time to be playing in the dirt," Twilight mildly scolded, placing Spike face-up on her back. "Come on, we need to get to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy before the chariots arrive. You might want to hold on tight, though. This is gonna be a bumpy ride."

Twilight unfurled her wings and positioned herself in a ready flying stance. Spike wasn't done spitting most of the dirt from his mouth before Twilight shook her flank, building enough speed for her takeoff. "Wait a minute, Twilight. I'm not ready to flyyyyYYYYIIIIIIEEEEEE!"

Before Spike could finish his sentence, Twilight took off to the sky like a rocket, leaving behind a magenta contrail. At the speed of Mach Five, Twilight zoomed through the skies in the direction towards Cloudsdale with Spike hanging on to her back for dear life as his stomach began to churn from the high speeds. With the hands of time not on her side, Twilight had to make her visit to Cloudsdale short and quick before the chariots taking her and her friends to their next destination arrived.


	4. Chapter 4: I'm Fluttershy

"So your name is Fluttershy, right?"

Harold sat on the ground in an Indian-style pose, his hands on his knees to support his rocking balance. An awkward silence passed them like the spring breeze rustling through the tree leaves. He and the pegasus named Fluttershy were both scared of each other, although Fluttershy's fears were made highly apparent. She hadn't trembled with fear ever since Harold assured her he was harmless, but she shied her gaze away mostly to the ground.

"That's actually a pretty name," Harold complimented, his voice shaking nervously. "Fluttershy; I like it. It certainly fits a timid little pony like you." Fluttershy cast yet another brief glance to Harold, giving off a tiny whimper before she looked back to the ground, continuously drawing circles into the dirt.

Truth be told, Harold was just as afraid as the pegasus was just by talking to her. He could sympathize with Fluttershy for being afraid of the whole world, always wanting to live somewhere away from society and hiding his face in a mask so strangers wouldn't look at him conspicuously. But deep down, something inside of him told him that Fluttershy was a good-hearted pony. He knew if he went out of his comfort and talk with the pegasus, she would help him to know where he was and if there was a way out of Equestria.

That's when a voice screamed inside of Harold's mind, to the point where he almost jumped. This was what Harold called, the Conflicting Voice. The Voice was a series of mocking and brutal thoughts that conflicted with Harold's wanting to do something beyond his comfort zone and festered him with thoughts of people rejecting him, whispering about him behind their backs. The voice was harsh and abusive, like it was hearing his father, Ahab's voice inside of his head.

_"Oh, that's so typical of you, you little accident! While you're sitting around and watching the pony become cuter, you're missing every opportune moment to fulfill that empty-headed hollow promise you made to your sister!"_ The Conflicting Voice barked, making Harold cower to his shoulders. _"If you really want to do something useful for yourself, then go up and ask her! Ask her for some help! Ask her for directions out of this crazy place! Do something! I can't even believe you're afraid of a talking pony!"_

Harold rubbed his arm nervously. He knew he had to ask Fluttershy about Equestria and if there was any possibility of a way out, but what else could he say? How would he even ask her? Harold couldn't start a conversation with someone without turning it into an awkward moment for him or the other people around him. Even if he did try and carry out that conversation, they wouldn't listen to him anyway. He was the son of Ahab and Deveraux DeMatt, the world's most controversial married couple who deeply wounded the state of New York with greed and power. Everyone knew that every word they spoke was dripping with acidic poison and soon, so would their own children.

That was why Harold was so reluctant to ask the pegasus. Every moment where society either shunned him or beat him to the ground drove him to become a socially-impaired introvert. Harold was afraid that whatever he said would either be ignored by the pegasus or it would intimidate her more than she already was. If he slipped this little meeting with Fluttershy up, she might never help him find a way out of Equestria.

But then again, this also spelt opportunity for him. If Harold kept sitting there staring at Fluttershy all day, what good will it do if he can't talk to her, especially since he had a long way to go before he could fulfill his promise to Lana? After all, Lana always wanted him to go and talk to people, socialize, even making some friends along the way. This was precisely what she always wanted Harold to do, wouldn't she?

_"Well, of course this is what your sister wanted you to do, you twit!"_ The Conflicting Voice snapped._"Come on, you're sitting right in front damned horse with wings, not some viper with hooves! They're all worthless vegetarians like you, so try and grow some guts for yourself, you peon!"_

Harold clamped his ears shut with his hands, silencing the voice from his head. Then he combed his hands through his hair and stretched, his hair spiked up by the days-old grease as he breathed through his nose. His unsettled nerves calmed themselves and the chemicals were exhaled from his lungs while he hummed the tune of "Southampton Dock". In a short time, Harold finally regained control of himself and the Conflicting Voice was gone for now.

Still, Harold couldn't argue with the voice. If he needed to more about this place, he needed to muster up some courage and talk to Fluttershy. She might know he could get back to the main highway and maybe not, but it never hurt him to ask. Clearing his throat, Fluttershy "eeped" as Harold spoke to her in a gentle tone.

"Umm... Miss Fluttershy, right?" Harold asked, earning a nod from the pegasus. "Miss Fluttershy, I understand from you that none of my kind has ever made it to this place before. Is that true?"

Fluttershy nodded once more. "Well, I know this might sound a bit off, but I sorta need your help," Harold explained with mild quaking in his voice. "You see, I was traveling by myself on the main highway when all of a sudden, this giant tornado swept me off my feet and I somehow ended up here by mistake. I was wondering if there was a way out of this... Equestria place and back where I came from. It's really, really important for me that I know how I can go back."

Fluttershy squeaked something inaudible then shook her head, causing Harold's eyebrows to raise with surprise. "So, what you're saying is that you don't know where the main highway is?" Harold asked.

Fluttershy nodded her head. "Is that a yes to 'you know where the main highway is' or a yes to 'you _don't_know where the main highway is?'" Harold asked, mildly irritated by the lack of specific answers given.

Once again, Fluttershy nodded her head, Harold becoming slightly annoyed. "Have you even heard of a main highway before?" he asked. With a shake of her head, Fluttershy squeaked like a mouse, loosely translated to "mm-mm." Harold sighed in disappointment. He had only met the only other living thing for God knows how many miles and she didn't know what the main highway was. Harold was at his wit's end and he slapped his knees out of frustration to prove it. At this rate, he would never accomplish what he set out on his journey for.

"Alright, Miss Fluttershy, I guess I'd better be going," Harold sighed. "I would say it was nice meeting you if it weren't for certain circumstances such as this. I'm sorry if I wasted most of your time, so I'll let you get back to your physical rehab for birds and... other animals."

Once more, Fluttershy whimpered something indecipherable as she shyly looked away from Harold. The human clicked his tongue and inhaled through his mouth, a hissing, whistling sound made by his slightly yellow teeth. "Okay... well, I guess I'll be taking off now," Harold said, slowly standing up, wiping a bit of dirt from his pants. "It was nice meeting you, Miss Fluttersh-AAHHH!"

As soon as Harold turned to walk away in the opposite direction, a familiar knife-sharp pain ran through his head. The migraine returned to torment the poor boy, just as he predicted it would sooner or later. This migraine, however, felt even more potent than the last one. The excruciating pain was so powerful, that it made Harold yelp as he fell back to the ground on his behind.

At the sight of the human's suffering, Fluttershy suddenly broke from her timid shell. As if someone flipped the switch on her personalities, Fluttershy gasped and rushed to Harold's side, the latter covering his eyes with his hand. "Oh! Oh my goodness, you're hurt!" the pegasus gasped, putting a hoof on his forehead, only to make Harold wince with pain. "Oh, you poor thing! Are you alright!? Where does it hurt!? Have you felt this way before, and if so, when did you first feel it!?"

"Miss Fluttershy... please... one at a time..." Harold grumbled, rubbing his temples whilst trying to cope with his migraine.

"Oh... oh, sorry," Fluttershy meekly apologized, shrinking back away from the human.

Harold slowly massaged his forehead, every attempt to dull the migraine failing as painful surges coursed through his brain. "God, I knew this would eventually happen again, but I didn't think it would be_this_ powerful," he complained. "I first felt this way when I woke up with the sun shining in my eyes. It managed to go away several minutes ago, but now it-AAAUUGGHH!"

Another surge of pain ran through Harold's head. Fluttershy gasped, now fully concerned for the pain the human was going through. "Oh my, you're in even worse condition than I thought! With a migraine like yours acting up constantly, you shouldn't be outside where the sunlight could do more damage to your head!"

Fluttershy firmly grasped Harold's arm and gently hoisted him up on his feet. Harold almost slipped with his footing, since the migraine not only affected his ability to think but also his ability to walk. "Come inside my cottage. You need to lie down and rest while I make a special herbal tea and give you some remedies for your head."

"Thank you for the offer, Fluttershy, but I'll be fine," Harold said. "Really. Just give it a few minutes and-"

"Oh no, no, no, no!" Fluttershy interjected. "I insist that you come inside so I can treat your head right away! It's the only way to get rid of it and prevent it from ever coming back!"

Before Harold could protest to Fluttershy's intentions, the pegasus began to gently lead him to her cottage. Her grip on Harold's arm was both gentle and firm, causing him to submit to this warm feeling over his agonizing pain. Harold questioned why Fluttershy was doing this for him. When they first met, Fluttershy was too afraid to talk to Harold, though he tried to make good conversations to help her out of her shyness. But when she saw he was in pain, she wasted no time in being concerned for his health. She was even leading him into her home so he would be cured of his migraine. Harold didn't know why she was being so polite to him. Reginald and Lana were the only two people from home who had ever gave him something he was receiving now: kindness.

This kind side of Fluttershy was nothing Harold had ever seen before. Even as he tried to resist being guided gingerly into her home, Harold couldn't help but wonder more about this side. Fluttershy seemed to give off this atmosphere that was, in a way, so familiar to him. In one minute, she was cowering before an unknown bipedal creature who appeared in her front yard; the next minute, she was caring for him. In fact, she had almost immediately gained his trust. Harold knew, because he allowed her to touch him. Back in New York, Harold was constantly enduring the barrage of beatings at the hands of Drake Singer, his two dumb lackeys or the teachers for drifting off for a split second. He even endured some of the rough tugging from the maids at home as they tried to change him in or out of different suits, uniforms and tuxedos. To this day, Harold would allow only the people he could find trustworthy and comfortable to make direct contact with him.

And yet, somehow he allowed Fluttershy to make contact with him. Harold didn't know the reason why he could trust her. Maybe it was because of the way she was concerned for his infliction. Maybe it was because of how her voice was like warm silk, soothing and soft to tame even the most wildest creatures in the world. Maybe it was because... because her kindness somehow reminded Harold of Lana.

A smile grew across Harold's lips, the thought of comparing Fluttershy with Lana giving him a soothing feeling.

**_BONK!_**

"OOOWWW!"

Harold was too deep in thought to notice the oncoming doorframe. The human's height was slightly taller that Fluttershy's, just about a size and a half, but he was tall enough so his head could touch the doorframe. And Harold did so by unknowingly running into it and hitting it on his forehead, the very same place where his migraine first acted up.

Harold yelped and gripped his head, wincing from the pain as he hissed in pain. The impact on his forehead caused his migraine to intensify by tenfold. Fluttershy gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves. "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! If I'd known you were too big for the door, I wouldn't have cause you so much more pain and-!"

"It's alright, Fluttershy," Harold interjected, raising a hand to quiet the pegasus. "It wasn't your -AAH!- fault. I should've been paying more attention where I was going." Harold backed up, nearly staggering while doing so and examined his height compared to the size of the door. "Besides, I'm not too big for the door. I only hit my forehead on the side of the frame. It's no big deal, this is something I can handle."

Fluttershy sighed with relief. "I suppose that _is_ good to hear," she said. "But we must get you inside, quickly. We can't afford to let your migraine worsen by the minute."

"Umm, alright." Harold gently massaged his temples with his rotating thumbs. A pair of caring frontal hooves wrapped around Harold's arm and gently tugged him along, guiding him into the interior of the cottage. Something inside Harold aside from the Conflicting Voice told him he should trust Fluttershy. He couldn't describe what it was, just a warm little hum whispering softly in his ear. Harold stopped for a moment and turned to Fluttershy, who followed suit with his actions.

"Uhh... thank you for what you're doing for me, Fluttershy," Harold said shakily. He never thanked anyone else for being kind to him before and his social skills were as rickety as an old rope bridge.

"You're welcome, Mr. Harold," Fluttershy replied. "I'm just glad I'm able to help out."

Fluttershy gently led Harold into her cottage, Harold ducking away from the doorframe to prevent a repeat of the incident a minute ago. As Harold finally went into the foyer of the cottage, Fluttershy tilted her head, smiling while she wondered about the human. She knew he was like her timid self in so many ways, but all the while, she also saw kindness deep down inside of him. He seemed formal by calling him "Miss," and appeared to be a long ways from home. For some unknown reason, he even trusted her completely the minute she became concerned when his head was in severe pain. Why this was, she didn't know.

As soon as Fluttershy went inside the cottage, she closed the doors behind her.

* * *

Twilight boosted her speed to Mach Six.

Her past few months of learning how to fly from both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had paid off so well. Fluttershy taught her how to delicately hover without wearing out her newly-earned wings while Rainbow Dash taught her how to fly as fast as an average pegasus, even faster at certain times. It was at this certain time that Princess Twilight Sparkle flew at those high speeds, a glint of determination shining in her eye. She had to hightail it to Cloudsdale to search for Rainbow Dash, Spike hugging her back while his face turned greener than his lime green spine.

"Whoa! Slow it down, Twilight!" Spike yelled out over the wind. "I cant handle this sort of air travel!"

"I can't slow this down, Spike!" Twilight shouted back to the airsick dragon. "Princess Celestia's chariots will be in Ponyville shortly and I need to get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy before they get there! You just need to keep your lunch down, we'll be at Cloudsdale in a minute!"

"But that's exactly what you said five minutes ago!" Spike's cheeks suddenly inflated and he covered his mouth, following a sickly gurgle from his stomach. He swallowed down the blocked vomit and winced a disgusted face. "Oh boy, I think that leftover sapphire and turquoise soufflé surprise wants to make a surprise exit."

"Just hang on, Spike! Once we find Rainbow Dash, we'll be heading down to Fluttershy's afterwards!" Twilight yelled back. "She'll get you all better, I- WHOA!"

Suddenly, Twilight found herself making a beeline towards the backside of a flock of geese. The V-shaped flock had recently returned from their winter vacation from down south, where the buffalo tribes from Appleloosa hunted these majestic birds from the sky for the sport of obtaining feathers for their tribal caps. Twilight quickly dove to the left, swerved around a couple of clouds and flew back into her destined path but not before she heard the geese squawk at her something that would be translated by Fluttershy. She was pretty sure whatever the geese honked at her were goose-related curses.

"Whew! That was close!" Twilight turned and looked to her back. "How are you holding up there, Spike!?"

Spike held on for dear life on Twilight's back, his claws digging into her mane for support. The baby dragon's airsickness worsened up when Twilight swiftly maneuvered through the airborne obstacles, his little arms quivering like jelly. Spike, however, had enough strength to pull himself up back on Twilight's back and into a slump, appearing to be paler than his previously pale color from the incident.

Spike shakily raised a clawed thumb up.

"I'm just doing super," he grumbled, letting himself melt in Twilight's back.

Twilight managed to stifle a giggle. "Don't worry, Spike, we're just about there!"

A minute and a half passed quickly as Twilight and Spike soared through the open skies of Equestria at the speed of sound. Twilight swerved and dodged around every cloud and every flock of birds she encountered on her flight, while Spike struggled to keep his lunch from spilling at dizzying heights. It wasn't long before Twilight and Spike finally managed to reach their destination, a city of clouds floating a mile or two above the ground. A lot of soft white buildings were built on the pillowy ground, held up by strong pillars made up of the same cloudy material. Waterfalls poured from the edges of the clouds, one of them being a rainbow-colored waterfall.

The city of Cloudsdale.

This aerial city happened to be the hometown of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, two of them among Twilight's circle of friends whom she sought out desperately for the emergency. Fluttershy hadn't visited Cloudsdale ever since the day she fell to the ground for the first time, so Rainbow Dash had to be around the floating city somewhere. Some of the pegasus ponies who flew by at the time Princess Twilight arrived to Cloudsdale turned tale and zipped back to the city and spread the news of her unexpected arrival.

Twilight gently eased off of her speed as she approached the center of Cloudsdale, fluttering her wings just as Fluttershy taught her how to do. With the gentlest of ease and royal graciousness, Twilight landed exactly in the center of the Cloudsdale square and kept her wings unfurled. Every pegasus around her bowed to her presence with respect, causing the lavender alicorn to sigh.

Twilight still couldn't get over how everypony so near and far to her would treat her like they would to both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Ever since her coronation, Twilight began to feel uncertain about holding the high title of the Princess of Magic and Friendship. The bowing and being called "highness," "majesty" and on rare occasions, "liege" was becoming quite as comfortable as lying on a rock-filled mattress. She still insisted on being treated as Twilight Sparkle, _not_ Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Spike slowly felt himself slide off of Twilight's back, too weak to even hold on to her soft coat. Out of reflex, Twilight quickly lit her horn up and gently placed Spike back on her back and materialized a seatbelt around his waist area.

"Be careful you don't fall, Spike," the alicorn instructed. "You _are_ a baby dragon, but you're no pegasus. You'd fall all the way through the clouds and down to Earth unless I conjured up some wings for you."

"I know, but in the meantime, could you conjure up a barf bag for me? I can't... really..." Spike couldn't finish his sentence as a sickly gurgle rose from his stomach and up to his mouth. Twilight flinched and quickly conjured up a single paper bag and levitated it into Spike's claws. The baby dragon lurched forwards and heaved his lunch, earning a few disgusted grimaces from Twilight and most of the pegasus ponies, even making some of them physically sick from the sight. When the terrifying part was over, Spike released his barf bag and moaned, lying flat on his adopted sister's bag.

Twilight used her magic to make the bag and its sick contents vanish into thin air. Shivering from having to carry a sick dragon on her back, Twilight quickly scanned the area for any sign of either Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. There was no such luck. With a quick _ahem!_ and standing in a regal posture, Twilight began to address the citizens of Cloudsdale in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

"ATTENTION, CLOUDSDALE! HAS ANYPONY SEEN RAINBOW DASH AROUND HERE!? IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT I FIND HER RIGHT AWAY!"

The pegasus ponies raised an eyebrow in confusion. They turned to one another and muttered if they knew what the definition of the word, "imperative" meant. Most of the pegasus replied they didn't know, some just shrugged their shoulders while others shook their heads. Twilight facehoofed herself and slowly dragged her hoof down her face, a deadpanning look wiped on her visage as she remembered a similar time when the word "imperative" also confused Spike. Twilight took in another breath so she could use her Canterlot Voice again.

"IT MEANS IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT!"

A wave of "ooh" passed through the crowd and the pegasus ponies grew a relieved smile. Then they turned and gave Twilight a series of mixed answers, ranging from "no" and "I don't know," a shake of their head and the shrugging of their shoulders. Every answer given to Twilight had no doubt made her sigh with disappointment with dissatisfaction.

"Uggghhh... she must be sleeping in a tree again or something," Twilight groaned as she spread her wings out. "Come on, Spike. Let's go see if Rainbow Dash is reading Daring Do in her room, or at least doing cloud duty in Ponyville." Twilight trotted a few paces and readied her wings for her to fly. She only brought herself a couple of feet above the ground when all of a sudden...

"WWWWHHHHHAAAAAA! LOOK OUT!"

Before Twilight could even turn to react to the warning, a cyan blue blur with a rainbow contrail crashed into the princess, knocking her and Spike to the cloudy ground and rolled twenty feet before stopping in a pile. Spike was thankful that Twilight managed to strap him down to her back with a materialized seatbelt; although, thanks to the rolling, Spike felt even more sicker than ever to the point where his face was on the borderline of white and light pale purple and lime green.

Pegasus ponies everywhere gasped as they saw their princess tackled to the ground and turned their narrow glares to the culprit lying on top of her. She was a cyan blue pegasus, her wildly-styled mane colored with the six colors of the rainbow. While the colors of red, orange and yellow on her mane were visible from the top of her head, the other colors of blue, green and violet hung down on the lower part of her mane. Her Cutie Mark was a simple white cloud with a tri-colored lightning bolt dyed in stripes of red, yellow and blue.

The cyan pegasus slowly pulled herself up from the pile and looked down to the fallen forms of Twilight and Spike. She let out a nervous chuckle as she looked around and was subjected to angry glares from her fellow ponies. "Uh, sorry about that, Twilight," the pegasus said. "I guess I did one too many backflips with that last trick."

Twilight groaned as she tried to lift herself off the ground, gazing at the pegasus with a stink eye. "Rainbow Dash..."

"Here. Let me help you up," said Rainbow Dash. She extended a couple of hooves to Twilight and lifted her up off the cushiony ground, the alicorn nearly losing her balance from the impact. "Sorry about that the rough landing, Twilight. I was trying to perfect this move to show the Wonderbolts for next month's Grand Galloping Gala and I can't seem to get that last backflip right."

"That's pretty obvious," Twilight replied flatly. "For somepony who recently made lead pony in the Wondebolts Academy, your moves are still comparable to a dilettante daredevil."

"Oh, lighten up, egghead," Rainbow Dash said. "I've got all month to practice my trick. Sure, I may have a long ways to go before I can make it as the next Wonderbolts captain, but that's why I take most of the time to practice. You know what they say..."

"Practice makes perfect," Twilight interjected. "I know; I'd say you do need more practice. Look at what you did to Spike." Twilight gestured her hoof to Spike, clinging to her back like a scared cat stuck on the branch of a tree. His pupils were the size of pinpricks and his teeth grit with fear and shock.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Twilight," Rainbow Dash chortled, waving her hoof down. "I'm sure that Spike will look back on this one day and laugh. But enough about me, what brings you up to these parts of the woods?"

"I got a letter from Princess Celestia just a few minutes ago. According to the confidentiality, Princess Celestia said..." Twilight looked around her scenery, where the pegasus ponies looked at the two of them with a mixture of blank faces and wonder. She leaned forward and whispered everything written in the letter into Rainbow Dash's ear, which made her eyes widen with surprise.

"Oh, so it's _that_ sort of emergency?" Rainbow Dash asked in a whisper.

"Yes, and Princess Celestia has already sent chariots to escort us to Canterlot. That's why it's important that we get the girls together at Ponyville square and meet them without being a minute late," Twilight explained. "That reminds me, have you seen Fluttershy anywhere today?"

"I have yesterday. She said something about giving her blue jay some physical..." Rainbow Dash twirled her hoof, trying to remember the pronunciation of the right word. "...reha... rehabilitation today. She should still be at her house right now."

"Then we have to get to Fluttershy's house immediately! We need her with us by the time the chariots arrive and we can't afford to keep them waiting! If we keep the chariots waiting, then we'll keep Princess Celestia waiting, and possibly Princess Luna too!" Twilight thrusted her hooves up to Rainbow Dash's face and grabbed her by the cheeks. She lowered Rainbow Dash's face at an even level with her face. "And trust me when I say that Princess Celestia does _not_ like to be kept waiting during emergencies like this!"

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash shot her hooves out and broke free of Twilight's restrain on her face and hovered over the clouds. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down there, sister, there's no need to freak out over this!" Rainbow Dash replied. "Look, I know you're really worried about meeting the chariots, but you've really gotta relax! You don't wanna get totally stressed out over this like you did that time, do you?"

Twilight cringed at the reminder of that day when her fears of tardy work got the best of her. She could still vividly remember the day when she cast a "Want-It, Need-It" spell on her doll, Smarty Pants to create a friendship problem which nearly got her into some serious trouble with Princess Celestia. If it wasn't for her friends' intervening, Twilight would've been demoted to magic kindergarten.

"Alright, here's how this is gonna go down," Rainbow Dash said. "We're gonna go get Fluttershy and bring her to town. If we go right now, then we can hightail it back to the town square so we can meet the girls and not be late when the chariots are sent out! It's simple!"

"I don't know, Rainbow Dash," Twilight replied uncertainly. "What if the chariots arrive in Ponyville by the time we get to Fluttershy's cottage?"

"Hey, don't worry about that. We can totally get down to Fluttershy's in three minutes flat."

"Are you sure about that?" Twilight asked uncertainly. "Because the chariots will probably take about fifteen minutes to reach Ponyville."

"That depends," Rainbow Dash replied. "How long did it take you to fly up here?"

"About four minutes."

"Then we have plenty of time, Twilight. If we leave now, like right now, we can even beat the others to the square!" Rainbow Dash flew straight up in the air, did a loop-de-loop and began to hover five feet from the ground. "Come on, Twilight! What are you waiting for, Hearth's Warming Eve? We're burning daylight here!"

Twilight's uncertain face grew to a confident smirk. This was the Rainbow Dash she knew well; she would do anything to help her friends out in such a coming crisis, such as keeping Twilight's uncertainty in check. Rainbow Dash may have failed to see the situation with Twilight's anxiety before, but after the Smarty Pants Incident, she vowed to help her friends and keep them in check. After all, Rainbow Dash represented the Element of Loyalty. She was the mare who helped keep the alicorn's confidence with herself when she and Fluttershy volunteered to teach her how to fly.

It was what friends did best for each other.

Without a second too soon, Twilight spread her wings and shot up into the air and quickly descended downwards to the outskirts of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash followed suit and the two winged ponies made a beeline towards Fluttershy's cottage. What they were unaware of at first was the surprise visitor awaiting treatment for his head from the Element of Kindness herself.


	5. Chapter 5: Act of Kindness

Harold had never been inside of a cottage before; not the ones he usually heard in bedtime stories with Lana, anyway. Usually, where there were cottages, there were sometimes wooden structures holding up a rocky interior with a grassy roof hanging over their heads, just like the roof to Fluttershy's cottage. In this case, however, Fluttershy's cottage was more modernized and really beautiful, more homely than the Seven Dwarves' cottage in "Snow White."

When Harold first walked inside, he was met with the foyer of the cottage, a staircase on the leftmost wall leading upstairs into the upper floor and an unlit stone fireplace with a chimney on the right. Next to the chimney was a little pet bed sitting near a birdcage with tiny wooden stairs extending down to the floor. As he looked up, Harold could see a little passageway run through the rafters of the ceiling and out the hole leading back outside. A green cabinet on his left had another set of tiny staircases next to it leading into the next room, a bag of bird food lying at the foot of those steps. Looking back to the chimney, there was also another set of tiny stairs, wrapping around the chimney. It was clear to Harold with the tiny stairs, the beds and the birdcages that Fluttershy kept a variety of pets in her home, all of them of small stature.

Harold felt his arm wrapped in a gentle hold by a pair of friendly hooves, leading him into the open room just ahead of him. Fluttershy cautiously walked the human into the living room, careful not to worsen Harold's migraine with a slight increase in pace. She had many an experience with treating animals with head pains, and if there was one thing she learned it was to be careful with how to fast she carried them to give them their treatment.

The living room had a cozier feeling on the inside as well as the foyer. A couch and an armchair sat near the living room wall, both upholstered in green padded fabric, a little round table sitting between the two green furniture. A lamp stood behind the couch and near the window to give Fluttershy some light while she was read a book she took off from the bookshelves built into the walls. On the floor was a round rug with a design of a flower in the center, the outlines and the outer circle colored teal and the inner circle turquoise. Finally, a few animal beds, a small number of birdhouses and a single mouse hole decorated the room for a comfortable living space for the animals.

Harold was colored impressed. So far, this place was considerable for being added into Harold's little gallery of artworks saved in his black sketchbook.

Fluttershy gently led Harold to the couch near the window in the rear section of the room. She gingerly turned Harold around and firmly seated him on the soft green cushions. "There you go, Mr. Harold," said Fluttershy. "Now you just sit here and relax while I get you a special homemade headache remedy from the kitchen. I'll even bring some bandages for that welt on your forehead."

"Really? I've got a welt on my head?" Harold looked up to his forehead, not seeing the aforementioned crimson bump forming in the area where he hit his head on the doorframe. Harold brought his fingers up to the bump and lightly tapped it, then winced to the stinging sensation that followed. It felt like someone gave him a quick touch with a red-hot fork, only with lesser degree burns.

"Oh my! Don't touch that, Mr. Harold!" Fluttershy gasped. "Touching your injury like that will only make it worse! You just sit tight while I go get the bandages for that swelling!" With a quick thrust of her wings, Fluttershy flew upstairs to her room to retrieve her first-aid kit tucked safely under her bed.

While Fluttershy was occupied with finding her medical kit, Harold kept his seat on the couch just like she ordered him to. The stinging sensation depleted in only a few seconds. Harold was tempted to rub the area around the welt, but he quickly shook that urge off and kept his arm down so he wouldn't let it touch it. When his urge had settled down, he took this time to look around the room and up at the ceiling where birdcages and birdhouses hung from the leafy vines wrapped around the rafters.

Looking closely, Harold saw what he though to be a few birds duck their heads away into the birdhouses as soon as they saw him glance their way. From the corner of his eye, Harold saw a couple of mice, one big and one small retreat into the sanctity of the hole in the wall and disappeared. Harold heaved a saddened sigh; he wasn't surprised that the mice and the birds would hide from him. They were afraid of Harold, and he silently agreed. They were afraid of going anywhere near the unknown bipedal giant carrying a big bag on his back. Every animal probably thought he was going to snatch them away, cook them and eat them for lunch.

But there was one thing they hadn't figured out: Harold was a vegetarian. Because of a personal and traumatizing moment, Harold could never eat meat, not from the way his mother's pet boa demonstrated right before his very eyes. He cursed his mother, Deveraux and her snake, Delilah for scarring him for life. If it weren't for the both of them, Harold would never have earned a lit cigarette butt on his left side.

The sound of multiple gusts of air turned Harold's attention to the staircase, where Fluttershy returned with a green first-aid kit carried by the handle in her mouth. She set the kit down gently and opened it up, rummaging through the contents before she took out two different rolls out of the box, one a roll of tape, the other a roll of plaster bandages.

Without a second missed, Fluttershy ripped a good piece of the bandage with her mouth and placed it over the welt on Harold's forehead, even allowing him to hold the bandage in place while she stuck four tiny pieces of tape over the edges. Harold couldn't deny that placing the bandage on the welt made him wince from the stinging at first. After a moment of enduring the stinging sensation, Harold felt the pain deteriorate and he smiled, though touching the welt only brought back the pain for a brief time.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt anymore," Harold simply said, looking cross-eyed up to his forehead. "Thanks a lot, Fluttershy."

Fluttershy smiled lightly to Harold's compliments. "You're quite welcome, Mr. Harold. Now, if you could sit still for just a little longer, I'll be back in a minute with my special homemade headache remedy and a pot of chamomile tea brewed especially just for you."

Before Harold could reply with a confirmation, Fluttershy fluttered her wings and flew into the room to his left, presumably the kitchen. There, Harold heard the clinking and clanging of pots and pans ring from the kitchen, followed with the sound of water running into a metallic dome. It didn't take someone above Harold's intellect to know that Fluttershy was filling up a tea pot full of water. In a few minutes, when the water would boil and the teapot whistled, Fluttershy was going to come out with a cup of chamomile and some of that remedy she spoke of.

While Harold didn't mind being treated for his newly chronic migraine, he wasn't a big fan of tea. He could never stand the taste of the herbs, even if it was sweetened with lemon, milk or honey. Still, Harold couldn't deny Fluttershy's grateful hospitality. He hadn't received this much medical attention since the last time Reginald treated his flu symptoms with his medical expertise.

Now that Harold thought about it, Fluttershy seemed to possess that similar expertise, only applying that to any animal in need of health and care. Did that make him as much of an animal to Fluttershy as she was to him?

Harold shook his head and clasped it with his hands. _"Get a grip, Harold! You're letting this get to your head!"_ he thought to himself. _"Surviving a gigantic tornado like the one last night is unlikely, but waking up in some strange place with a talking mythological pony!? Come on, Harold, pull yourself together! There's no way that all of this is real! This must be a part of the severe brain injury caused by the tornado! You can't be seriously believe that everything around you, including that pegasus is real, do you!?"_

To be honest, Harold didn't know what to think. Not only had the migraine affected his logical reasoning, it also hurt to try and counteract that reason. Every time Harold thought of all the vivd and surprisingly real sensations when he arrived in this unknown place, it caused a growing pain somewhere in the very center of his brain. It was as if something was throbbing painfully inside of his head, making perfect synchronization with his heartbeat.

Harold was brought out from his thinking by a series of repeating thumping noises. Harold looked to the couch and saw a snow-white rabbit standing on the cushion next to his, his arms crossed and a scowl written on his face. Harold didn't know what the rabbit was glaring at him for, most likely because he was a strange creature in Fluttershy's household that did not belong here.

With a gentle smile, Harold slowly reached his hand out to pet the rabbit. "Hey there, little guy," he said with a gentle voice. "Aren't you just the cutest little rabbit I've ever seen?"

As Harold's hands inched closer to the rabbit's head, said bunny slapped it away from him and resumed his arm-crossing. "Well that was just rude," Harold said, flabbergasted. "I was just gonna pet your head. Is that how you treat every guest who's suffering from a really bad headache?"

As if on cue, the little rabbit hopped over to Harold and began landing his attacks on the human being. The rabbit rapidly kicked his thigh then proceeded to punch his sides with his little paws, unaware that the attacks were having no effect whatsoever. Harold cocked his head curiously as the kicking and the punching were reduced to nothing but little thumps, barely even making his nerves react with soreness.

"I'll take _that_ as a yes."

A teapot's whistle drew Harold's attention to the doorway, which died down as Fluttershy presumably took it off the stove. A minute later, Fluttershy trotted out of the kitchen carrying a wooden tray on her back, consisting of a porcelain teapot, two teacups on a saucer, a glass jar on honey with a wand inside and a small porcelain jar sitting next to the teapot.

"I'm sorry for the wait, Mr. Harold. It took me a bit of time to find the remedies and make the chamomile tea, but once you've taken them, your headache will-." Fluttershy was cut off by a gasped when she saw her pet rabbit give Harold a beating on his thigh. Her big, soulful eyes were narrowed down to a cute, but strict scowl.

"Angel Bunny! For shame, you know better than to fight with our guests!" Fluttershy scolded her pet.

The rabbit known as Angel Bunny ceased his fighting and turned to Fluttershy. Angel pointed to Harold a couple of times and waved his arms sideways, a "no-no" gesture telling his master that Harold was no good for the household. Fluttershy became less amused as she knew what Angel told her through his actions. Her tone dropped to that of a calm and direct disciplinarian.

"Now, Angel, you must treat Mr. Harold like a guest. Just because you do not like him for being another species doesn't mean you should be mean to him," Fluttershy explained, pointing to the young human. "Now, I want you to apologize to Mr. Harold for hitting him. Do you understand?"

Angel Bunny replied with a shake of his head.

Fluttershy's eyes only narrowed further by Angel's rude behavior. "Angel Bunny, I don't want this to become an issue, especially in front of our guest. You have to say you're sorry to Mr. Harold this very instant, young bunny or you won't earn any of that special salad for dinner tonight."

Again, Angel Bunny shook his head.

"Angel, please. All I want for you is to..." Fluttershy was cut off when Angel Bunny hopped over to Harold and gave him another beating, having heard enough from his master. Angel Bunny kept punching, kicking and occasionally biting Harold on the pant leg, all of which proved to be ineffective against the human. Fluttershy stammered with her words as she tried to reason with Angel, all control slipping away from her.

"Angel, don't you dare... now Angel, be nice to... Angel... I... Angel!"

Fluttershy's yelping voice was the last straw. She lost her patience with Angel Bunny and now it was time for his behavior to be changed. She snapped her head towards Angel Bunny and did something she was reluctant to use on even the most misbehaving creatures; she widened her eyes, let her blue irises expand and narrowed her small eyebrows. Such a gaze from Fluttershy released a wave of intimidation towards Angel Bunny, causing him to freeze with fright and shiver under the cold eyes of the Stare.

Harold looked to Angel Bunny as he shrunk back under the Stare's frightful hypnosis. To his curiosity, Harold looked at Fluttershy then felt a chill run up his spine. As he looked into the eyes of the pegasus, Harold felt himself glued to his seat as if someone stuck a frozen knife in his nerves. He saw something cold and dark in Fluttershy's Stare... the very essence of fear.

Angel Bunny continued to cower under Fluttershy's Stare, feeling compelled to do what she first asked him to do. Hastily, Angel pulled a sign from behind his back with the words "I'm Sorry" written in big black words. When the sign was shown to the human, Angel Bunny quickly hopped off of the couch and into the kitchen to hide from Fluttershy and her accursed Stare.

Fluttershy switched her Stare off with a blink of her eyes before she turned to happily look at Harold. "I'm very sorry about Angel Bunny's behavior, Mr. Harold. He's usually like this whenever we have a guest at our house and... um, Mr. Harold? Are you feeling okay... if you don't mind me asking?"

Harold was still overwhelmed by Fluttershy's fearful Stare, the effects keeping him frozen as a montage of images flickered through his head like a Stanley Kubrick movie. He saw the dark, nightmarish image of Fluttershy looking angrily into his soul, the glimmer in her blue irises reflecting his abundant fears right back at him. The pictures all appeared in brief flickers before they reverted back into the dark eyes of Fluttershy's Stare.

A picture of poisonous asps and vipers, slithering over, under and through their fellow serpents. Their forked tongues flapped in the air, a hissing noise resonating throughout the entire snake pit.

Fluttershy's Stare.

A close-up of a box scorpion thrusting its deadly tail into the foot of its unfortunate victim, leaving her wriggling on the ground until she stopped moving completely.

Fluttershy's Stare.

A first-person view of standing on the very top of the Empire State Building, then falling down 103 stories to the concrete sidewalk.

Fluttershy's Stare.

The picture of the inside of a slaughterhouse, processing meat from the bodies of the slaughtered animals. Their bodies dangled on the meat hooks on the conveyor belt while the meaty, bloody remains were stacked on the wooden tables.

Fluttershy's Stare.

The first-person view of an entire classroom, the students pointing, laughing and jeering at the viewer while the schoolteacher watched on in a stoic, uncaring manner.

Fluttershy's Stare.

Another first-person view walking down a crowded street. The people all gave the viewer a suspicious glance while some of them cleared a path for him walk through, their eyes burning bright with a deep fiery hatred.

Finally, Fluttershy's Stare.

Harold was lost in a mashup of psychological horror, all thanks to the effects of the Stare. Fluttershy did her best to grab his atgtention. She waved her hoof in front of his face, called out his name, anything that would bring him back to reality. After half a minute of waiting for a response, Fluttershy regrettably knocked Harold on the head with her hoof, which brought his mind back to the real world. The regrettable part was she knocked Harold on the head, the first place where his migraine acted up.

"AAH!"

Harold responded to sudden surge of pain with a painful yelp that nearly made Fluttershy jump out of her coat. He clasped his head and bent over, hissing through his teeth while he struggled to cope with the pain. "Oww! Fluttershy, what'd you go and do that for, anyway!?"

Harold immediately regretted snapping at Fluttershy when he saw her shrinking back from him, the look of terror tearing up in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Mr. Harold," Fluttershy squeaked, nearly sobbing. "I thought the migraine was acting up again and you weren't responding to me calling out to you. I only gave you a slight tap to your forehead and I..."

Harold's regret grew into his chest like a pulsing wound as Fluttershy began to sob, covering her eyes with her hooves. "I... I... I never knew how sensitive you are to getting tapped on the head," Fluttershy cried before shrouding her face completely in her hooves.

A new wave of panic coursed through Harold's nerves. Looking around the room, Harold looked up in the rafters and in every corner to see Fluttershy's faithful animals, revealing themselves from their hiding places while they gave him an angry look. Harold swallowed nervously as the small woodland animals began to slowly but menacingly swarm into the room. He realized too late what the consequences were for making Fluttershy cry, whether it was intentional or unintentional. Quickly thinking, Harold turned to the weeping pegasus.

"Hey, look, I didn't mean to make you cry..." Harold shot his head around the room, his fear rising as the mob of mad animals advanced towards him with blood red glowing in their eyes. "Look, Fluttershy... I'm sorry for yelling at you like that. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

Fluttershy sniffled and wiped her eyes, then moved them to meet with Harold. "It's okay, Harold. I know you didn't mean to yell at me like that," she said, sniffling. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. After all, I did tap you in the place where your head was hurting the most. I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's okay. I guess we're both sorry now, aren't we?"

Fluttershy sniffled once more, then giggled. "I guess we are."

Harold gently smiled. He took a sideways glance to the animals in the foyer, all of them sitting up on their rumps before they retreated back to their original hiding places. It was like they were broken from a spell that influenced them to become angry animals if someone happened to make Fluttershy cry. Heaving a relieved sigh, Harold looked back to Fluttershy.

"So, Fluttershy... about those remedies..." Harold reminded.

Fluttershy suddenly perked up, her ears reaching maximum height. "Oh yes, the remedies," she said, setting the tray down on the table between the chair and the sofa. "First things first, you have to apply this remedy to your forehead and the pain will clear up in no time at all."

Fluttershy took the porcelain jar and gently held out to Harold, who gingerly took it from her cupping hooves. Harold removed the lid of the jar and peered inside. The jar was filled with a nearly transparent yellow liquid, sloshing around its fragile white walls as he gently moved it. Harold felt a strong scent burn in his nostrils. He smelled a distinct smell of peppermint, most likely wafting off from the yellow liquid.

"Is this... peppermint?" Harold asked.

"Why, yes, Mr. Harold. That's exactly what it is," Fluttershy said. "It's peppermint oil. I use it whenever a patient of mine is coming down with a headache. I thought it would be useful for your headache as well."

_"Maybe it's also useful as a substitution to smelling salts,"_ Harold thought with a giggle. _"The smell is powerful enough to wake up a sleeping elephant."_ Harold reached his hand into the jar and swished his fingers around in the oil, pulling out two oil soaked fingers with a strong smell of peppermint. He gently rubbed the oil on his forehead around the bandaged area, a cold sensation cooling his skin.

Then, as soon as the peppermint oil was settled on his forehead, Harold immediately felt something in his head. He felt the painful effects of his migraine drain away from his head, as if someone pulled the plug and let the bad stuff pour out. The pain slowly but gradually diminished from his system with every breath Harold exhaled. The migraine became numb and number until finally, Harold felt nothing.

"Hey! My head doesn't hurt anymore!" Harold exclaimed awestruck.

Fluttershy smiled, a small satisfied hum escaping her throat. "See? It's like I said, Mr. Harold; when you applied that oil to your forehead, your migraine cleared up in no time at all." Fluttershy took the teapot and poured the hot water into the cup. She dipped the chamomile teabag into the steaming clear water several times until the water turned into a golden herbal drink.

The scent of the water transformed into a peaceful aroma of chamomile herbs, something that Fluttershy found solace in smelling before she added in the honey dripping from the honey wand. Mixing up the flavors of chamomile and honey with a stir of a spoon, Fluttershy gently handed over the teacup and saucer to Harold. "Here. Now drink this up and it'll clear up whatever's left of that migraine."

Harold reluctantly took the teacup from Fluttershy's hold. He smelled the aroma of flower herbs mixed in with honey and slightly grimaced. He could taste it already, and it didn't settle to well with his taste buds either. Harold took the teacup and sipped it, letting the flavors of the tea flow over his tongue which nearly made him choke before he forcefully swallowed it. The honey didn't do much to sweeten it up. He wasn't a fan of consuming honey directly unless it was mixed in with cereal.

Fluttershy cocked her to her right, looking curiously at Harold as he cleared his throat and pounded his chest. "Well? Did you like the tea?" she asked.

Harold shuddered from the taste of the tea, feeling its bitter taste of flowers and honey flow down his throat. Twitching from the flavor, Harold shakily lifted his arm up, pointed his thumb to the ceiling and forced a weak smile. "It's... good," he fibbed. "Yeah, it has this exquisite flowery, sweet mix to it. In fact, I can feel my headache getting better already. Thank you for the tea, Fluttershy."

"Your welcome, Mr. Harold. I'm glad the tea is helping with your headache," said Fluttershy as she beamed with a smile. "Oh, you know what? That reminds me, I have to feed everyone their lunch." Fluttershy got off the couch, hovered in the air and turned to face Harold. "I hate to leave you like this again, Mr. Harold but I have take care of my animals, first. If there's anything you need from me, please don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

"Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

Fluttershy beamed with a smile and gently flew away back into the kitchen. When Fluttershy was well out of sight, Harold did a double-take around the room, making sure no one saw him do what he did next. Using his hand, Harold reached back and opened the window by a crack and tossed the chamomile tea from the mug. He never looked back after throwing the tea back out the window, a tactic used in shows to make themselves look casual.

After he set his mug down on the table, Harold leaned back and slowly moved his hands up his face, breathing deeply though his nose. Now that his migraine was gone, it was time that Harold focused on the matter at hand. He needed to figure out a way out of this "Equestria" place. Since Fluttershy had no existing knowledge about the human race, let alone where the main highway was, Harold had to find a way back to Earth. It was the only way for him to fulfill Lana's promise. If he needed to get out of "Equestria," he needed an insider look about where he was and hopefully find a way back.

Harold was compelled to go up and call in Fluttershy's favor, but for some reason, he couldn't. He felt himself held back to the couch by doubt and worry. What if Fluttershy didn't know how to find a way back to Earth? What would happen to Harold if he got stuck in Equestria, possibly forever? How was he supposed to fulfill his promise if he couldn't get back to Earth?

Suddenly, Harold felt his hand slap him on the face by an invisible force.

_"Perfect. You really are such a little pain in the ass, aren't you?"_ the Conflicting Voice said. _"All you do is worry too much and you let yourself get held back! That's why you've failed to make friends, you little twit! Because you're so scared about what would happen that you'd have to turn tail and run! You make me sick to my stomach! That is, if I had a stomach to throw up from."_

Harold sighed and combed his fingers through his greasy hair. What was he going to say to her? Was he going to go up to her and say something like, "Hey, Fluttershy, I was brought here by a tornado so I was wondering if you knew a way for me to get out of Equestria and back home?" No, Harold wasn't like that. He wasn't the guy who would go up to people and ask them for anything that he desired, like for help for an upcoming quiz or if they wanted him to be part of a game they played.

All of that resulted in a little part of hell on Earth for him. Harold never received the attention, and even if he did, they would snidely remark how dumb he was for not taking notes in class or they would take that tetherball and see if the ball would hit him on the face and knock him to the ground. He was afraid to ask for help, except for whenever Lana or Reginald were around. They helped him out with what he needed and tried to give him a little supporting push.

Harold supposed he could ask Fluttershy. After all, he compared her with Lana in terms of kindness just a few minutes ago, so it would make sense for him to go up and ask her for help.

_"Was that part not obvious enough, you dumb clod?"_ the Conflicting Voice remarked. _"It make perfect sense for you to ask that pegasus! What doesn't make sense is why you're growing a pair and not going up to ask her right now! Get on your feet! Go to the kitchen where she's at! Talk to her! Do something useful for once in your miserable life!"_

Harold ultimately complied with the Conflicting Voice. Desperate for the Voice to stop screaming out of intimidation, Harold slowly rose to his feet and stretched himself out. He walked to the kitchen doorway, where Fluttershy served Angel Bunny with a wood bowlful of salad, consisting mainly of lettuce, cucumbers and carrots. Fluttershy gently nudged the bowl to Angel Bunny while the latter rabbit turned away from the meal with disdain.

"Come now, Angel Bunny. This is the same salad you tried and liked very much remember?" Fluttershy asked, only to get Angel Bunny's shaking head with reply. "Why don't you try a bite? I heard salad is very good for you. Don't you want to grow up and become a strong, healthy little bunny?"

The salad bowl suddenly flew past Fluttershy's face. Angel Bunny punted his meal across the room with his foot and crashed it on the wall, leaving a mess of lettuce, carrots and cucumbers sliding down the wall while the bowl fell face-down on the floor.

Before Fluttershy could say anything, the rebellious bunny hopped towards the back door and jumped to the knob, twisting it to open the wooden portal. As the door opened to a crack, Angel Bunny hopped out into the outside world, leaving Fluttershy alone to clean up his mess... again. "Angel Bunny, sometimes I wonder why you have such an awful attitude."

Harold curled up his hand into a fist and knocked on the doorway three times.

_KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!_

"EEP!" Suddenly, Fluttershy dove behind her magic-powered refrigerator, instinctively out of shock. She poked her head around the corner and sighed a breath of relief as she saw who it was. "Oh, it's you, Mr. Harold. Sorry, you just frightened me is all."

Harold smiled, stifling a giggle. "Sorry about that, Fluttershy. Didn't know you were that jumpy."

"I am. I'm ashamed to say that being jumpy is one of my traits," Fluttershy lamented, her yellow cheeks turning a shade of vermillion as she looked away to the floor. "I can't help it, really I can't. Sometimes, whenever there's something so close makes such a sudden movement or a sound, I just get so scared that I freeze up on the spot."

"Can't help who you are, huh?" Harold asked. "I've known that feeling for a long time myself."

Fluttershy looked back to Harold, her eyes casting her timid glance towards him. "You have?"

"Yeah. I... have a hard time fitting in with my own people and I feel cast out myself. It's something you have to live with, you know?"

"I guess that's true." Fluttershy finally turned her head to Harold, all levels of timidity depleted from her. She sat on her haunches and looked at him curiously. "Is there something that I can do for you?"

Harold leaned on the doorframe, his left hand shyly rubbing the back of his head. "I think so. You would do something for me if I asked you, right?" Fluttershy nodded her head. "Well, I'm not sure how to say this because I haven't asked many of my people for favors. I guess it's hard for me to ask you for favors too, but maybe if I explained something to you, you might get a better understanding first."

"Umm... okay."

Harold breathed through his nose and sighed, looking up into space as he explained what he could recall happened to him. "Four, or maybe five days ago, I left my home to fulfill a promise to someone, someone very special to me. I was traveling down the main highway out from my hometown for four days when I stopped one night to eat and rest.

"While I was eating my supper that night, there was this great big tornado that touched down one mile behind where I was. It was like..." Harold spread his arms out, his hands clawed and cupped to make a size comparison. "...this big from a distance away and a whole lot bigger up close. I tried to escape it, but I got sucked in and I was getting whipped by it until I blacked out."

Fluttershy covered her mouth, gasping. "Oh my! You didn't get hurt badly now, did you?"

"That's the thing. I _was_ hurt badly and I blacked out because of it," Harold said. "But when I woke up, I found myself in a big field next to the forest, and to top it all off, I wasn't hurt and neither was my stuff. I thought everything was all just a big dream caused by a severe blow to my head that caused me to go in a coma. At first, I thought this place wasn't real and a very vivid figure of my dream... but now? Now, I'm not so sure anymore."

"How did you find out this wasn't a dream?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, I tried to wake myself up. I closed my eyes for a few minutes, pinched myself on the arm." Harold showed Fluttershy a red mark on his arm where he pinched himself. Fluttershy gasped mildly at the sight. "In the end, I couldn't wake myself up from this dream so I assumed that this was either real or it was a vivid vision."

"Oh my. You must have had quite a hard time."

"Yeah. But that wasn't the least of my problems," Harold said. "When I was wondering where I was, a newspaper suddenly flew in my face and I got the name of this whole place. When I did..." Harold gently massaged his temples. He could still feel his first experience with that sensation. "...I had this strangest feeling come over me. It's like I somehow knew this place, but at the same time, I didn't. When I tried to dig deeper, it just disappeared. I still can't shake that feeling off."

Fluttershy tilted her head, her eyes wondrous as Harold continued his story. "This is where you come in, Fluttershy. You're a pony and this place is called Equestria, so I assume that this place is populated with ponies and such. I... I was wondering if you could..." Harold swallowed a nervous lump in his throat as he found himself reluctant to speak the words he never thought he would use before.

"I was wondering... if you could... teach me all you about Equestria?"

Harold instinctively winced from the question, a rain of sweat trickling from his pores down his body. He didn't believe what he said, but he actually said it. He actually asked to be taught on an unknown place, despite his hatred of school. Because of the many traumatic moments he had while he was stuck in that prison he called a private school, Harold was reluctant to learn about stuff like science, mathematics and geology.

But this was different for him. Harold was in a place called "Equestria" and Fluttershy was the only pony around who knew more about this place than he ever did. That was reason enough why Fluttershy beamed with a friendly smile. "Well, if it's a lesson you want, Mr. Harold, then I'll be happy to give you a lesson."

Harold perked up, very surprised. "Really?"

"Of course. I'm more than willing to help out any creature in their time of need," Fluttershy said, smiling. "After all, that is what friends are for."

Harold suddenly felt a twinge of surprise jolt in his chest, like a friendly static shock. "Wait. You consider me to be your... friend... even though we've just met?"

Fluttershy fluttered up to Harold to meet him at eye level, the beautiful friendly smile still stretched across her muzzle. "Why, yes, Mr. Harold. I've never seen or taken care of an intelligent otherworldly creature from another planet before! I also see something good within you, Mr. Harold, which is why you are now my newest friend."

Harold felt a little touched squeak escape his throat. There was a word he never thought he heard or used for a long time: "friends." He never really had much friends, nor did he need any use for them. After all, who wanted to be friends with him when he suffered in New York? No one did, and the "friends" of the people who wanted Harold to suffer all ganged up on him like he was a shriveling, cowering kid. If there was one person he relied on the most, it was Lana, and she was now long gone.

But Fluttershy's case was completely different; she _wanted_ to be friends with Harold. He, the only human walking among an intelligent winged pony who was cared for his affliction and was willing to help him in every way she can. Harold couldn't help but smile as Fluttershy led him back to the couch.

"Where would you like to being your learning?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think I might need to start with something basic," Harold requested. "I think we'd better start with the population."

"Alright, then," Fluttershy confirmed, clearing her throat gently. "We'll begin your lesson with the four different types of ponies in Equestria..."

* * *

Pinkie Pie trotted carefree into the outskirts of Ponyville, singing her jovial tune. Cupcakes, candies, chimicherries, cherrychangas, chimicherrychangas and meeting with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were among the many jumbled thoughts running through her head as she reached the entrance to Ponyville's premiere apple farm, Sweet Apple Acres. This country-side apple farm was known for harvesting top quality apples and the only location where everypony could get their hooves on their world famous Zap Apple Jam once a year, as well as being the first residential family in Ponyville.

That family was the Apple Family, and Granny Smith was the last founding mare of Ponyville. If it weren't for her explorations into the Everfree Forest and finding that Zap Apple Jam, Ponyville wouldn't have existed in the first place. Neither would Granny Smith's granddaughter, and Pinkie Pie's truthful friend would have existed to be chosen by the Elements of Harmony as the Element of Honesty. It was that same mare who not only was honest, but also a bit overprotective and sometimes stubborn as a mule.

She got that side from her Pa.

It was on this day that the mare worked in the orchards, harvesting fresh, ripe apples from the trees with only a kick from her hind legs. Pinkie Pie had happily trotted into the orchards and found a couple of fellow Earth ponies harvesting and hauling a load of apples to the barn. The first pony Pinkie Pie saw was a red burly stallion, with an orange mane and a brown yoke worn around the lower part of his neck. He had three freckles on each side of his face and his Cutie Mark was half of a green apple, which showed the exposed core, seeds and all. This was Big Macintosh, Ponyville's quiet but strong stallion who mostly said "Eeyup" and "Eenope."

The second pony Pinkie Pie saw was the exact same mare she was looking for. She was an orange mare, a blonde mane wrapped up in a little red band. She wore a brown Stetson cowboy hat, had three freckles on each side of her face like Big Macintosh and her Cutie Mark were three red apples, all having a single brown stem with a little green leaf on each stem. The cowgirl pony's strength was admirable, having athletic capabilities that rivaled that of Rainbow Dash's. She could kick a football at about one-hundred yards and she barely put her full strength into those kicks. Afterwards, as a sign of pride, she crossed her legs while smiling.

"Applejack! Hey, Applejack!" Pinkie yelped as she trotted up to the mare.

The mare named Applejack turned to Pinkie, a smile cracked across her face. "Well, howdy do there, Pinkie Pie," Applejack greeted in a southern-accent voice. "What brings ya here ta Sweet Apple Acres? Y'all need some apples fer yer apple cinnamon cakes?"

"No," Pinkie said, tilting her head and smiling innocently. "I'm just here to tell you that Twilight needs you and Rarity out in Ponyville Square shortly. She said something about Princess Celestia informing us of another emergency and the fate of Equestria resting in our hooves again."

"What!? Another emergency!?" Applejack gasped, her shock turning into a pout. "Oooohhh... and just when Ah was in the middle of Applebucking Season, there had ta be another danger risin' in Equestria." When Applejack was done muttering, she turned to her hyperactive friend. "So what's the emergency, Pinkie? Did Twilight say?"

"Eenope," Pinkie replied. "But I bet it was super-duper important that Twilight couldn't tell me what the emergency is, or I would go around blabbing it out to everypony and that would make the super-duper secret mission not a super-duper secret mission anymore!"

"Ah guess that explains why Twilight didn't tell ya," Applejack sighed. "Fine, Ah'll come with, but Ah'll have ta make up fer lost time once Ah get back. Big Macintosh, can ya hold down the fort while Ah'm gone?"

Big Macintosh turned to Applejack with a stoic nod and a simple, "Eeyup."

"Good." Applejack turned to Pinkie and tipped her hat down over her emerald green eyes. Everypony in Ponyville knew that even the slightest forwards tip of her hat meant the country pony was going to get serious. "Alright, Pinkie Pie, let's go an' get Rarity. We've got a meetin' with the Princess ta attend to."

With that said, Applejack turned around and cantered off towards the Ponyville limits. Pinkie Pie squealed happily and reared herself upwards, kicking her hooves up before she took off bounding towards Applejack's direction, gaining enough speed in every bounce until she was close by the country mare and kept an even pace. While Pinkie Pie obviously took this expedition as fun and carefree, the cowpony kept a narrowed iron-hard look on her face, a look of determination to answer the summoning from Princess Celestia herself.

That determination followed the Element of Honesty as she and the Element of Laughter made their way to their destination: The Carousel Boutique, where Rarity, the Element of Generosity resided.


End file.
